ONLINE EXHIBITION | WORLD NATIVITIES 2020
To view a zoomable version of this Nativity on Google Arts & Culture, click on the image. To explore Glencairn’s World Nativities exhibition Advent Calendar, click here.
3. NATIVITY WITH AFRICAN ANIMALS
Van Nyasulu
Nkhata-Bay, Republic of Malawi
Afrormosia (African teak)
2017
Malawi is a landlocked country in southeastern Africa. Approximately three-fourths of the population identify as Christian. Artist Van Nyasulu, from Nkhata-Bay, was taught how to carve by his father, Symon Nyasulu, beginning at the age of six. Van trained under Symon until he was fourteen, when his father passed away and he began carving full-time on his own. This Nativity, carved from Afrormosia wood (African teak), depicts the Holy Family beneath a hut. Instead of the ox and donkey familiar from European Nativity scenes, the family is surrounded by animals native to Malawi: an African buffalo, a leopard, a lion, a giraffe, an elephant, and a rhinoceros.
To view a zoomable version of this Nativity on Google Arts & Culture, click here. To explore Glencairn’s World Nativities exhibition Advent Calendar, click here.