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Zuma Biscuits take the cake
20/03/2007 11:33 - (SA)
Ilse Fredericks, Die Burger
Cape Town - You can't take everything former deputy president Jacob Zuma says as gospel - not if you take the work of a local artist to heart.
Stuart Bird, 29, a master's degree student in fine arts at the University of Cape Town's Michaelis art school has created a work entitled Zuma Biscuits, which is on display at Michaelis Gallery. It consists of four wooden sculptures in the same bright colours and shapes as the much-loved Iced Zoo biscuits, and depicts a skirt, a shower, a Zulu shield and an AK-47.
The sculptures are so true-to-life that visitors have asked Bird for permission to lick them.
'Zuma's a father figure'
"I think everyone wishes they had a big cookie like that."
Bird said the idea came to him during the former deputy president's rape trial last year. Zuma was acquitted.
"It was based on some of the statements that Zuma made to the media.
"I didn't do it to poke fun. Zuma is a father figure to many South Africans. Many people respect him and what he says, even although it's not always responsible."
"Just like a child will take a cookie from his parents, without thinking of health or other consequences, that's how his followers swallow his utterances, without questioning them."
Bird said the skirt portrayed the idea that a woman who wore short skirts was being sexually provocative.
It has a big impact on women's rights, said Bird.
The shield was Zuma's culture and heritage which he sometimes used to justify what he had said.
'Enough said about the shower'
The assault rifle referred to his struggle background, as well as the Awulethu Umshini Wam (bring me my machine gun) song, which he often performed in public.
"There's also a shower - enough said."
Bird's work forms part of the exhibit, Come, which presents new works of the art school's master's degree students.
It will be on exhibit in Durban from March 27.
- Die Burger
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South Africa
