Duality

Duality is an 11 kg stone sculpture carved from fruit serpentine, a Zimbabwean material known for its layered colouring and its capacity to hold subtle variation. The sculpture takes the form of a fish, presented with two distinct sides: one incised and animated by rhythmic marks, the other more reserved, allowing the weight and texture of the stone to remain present.

Fruit serpentine responds softly to the hand, encouraging a slower, intuitive carving process. Rather than forcing uniformity, the stone allows difference to emerge naturally. In Zimbabwean sculptural contexts, serpentine is often associated with land memory and ancestral presence; in this work, those associations surface through contrast between surface and depth, gesture and restraint.

Duality explores the coexistence of opposing qualities within a single body. The fish becomes a metaphor for holding contradiction: movement and stillness, exposure and protection, softness and weight, not as conflict, but as balance.