JIMMY MACHINJILLI Born in 1960 in the Mazoe District – Died 2004 in Harare For many sculptors working in stone in Zimbabwe, space is not a consideration in their work. The idea of framing a space of a particular shape with stone does not come into their mind, nor does the overall concept of using space as a property of sculpture. To Jimmy Machinjilli however space is a positive factor in sculpture, a way of articulating the form of a sculpture, a means of identifying subject and perhaps indicating something of human feeling and of character. Jimmy Machinjilli is the younger brother of Garrison Machinjilli, a sculptor well established because of his sculptures of female heads and faces, often in uncared stone, women with elaborate hair, and often seductively full lips, women comfortable with the night rather than the day. His young brother Jimmy however is blessed with a preoccupation with sculptural form, and proportion. He has made a sculpture of a figure raising its hands, or is it a vase? It does not matter; what does matter is the proportionate relationship between form and space, and at a more metaphysical level, spirit and matter. There is much to be said for a young sculptor working in stone in Zimbabwe today who is not “sold” on the past, not riding on the back of a mystical spirituality, not “up with the spirits” but rather acknowledges them as a formidable social force within traditional African culture. Jimmy Machinjilli is such a sculptor. What matters to this young sculptor is to give springstone a look of old pewter, somehow shining and giving off some kind of gleam. There are some sculptors working in Zimbabwe today who are or have been able to give stone the appearance of another material, bronze, metal, clay, and now there is pewter, simulated in springstone by Jimmy Machinjilli. He is not one of the “Young Turks” of his profession, able to move around with his stones in a designer truck, or blacken the windows of his car so that he stays anonymous; rather he is an average young man - more ambitions than average in terms of his sculpture. He knows the ways and wiles of his profession, the do’s and don’ts, and the difference between the “haves and have nots”. Machinjilli is an artist first, a celebrated one second- he is focused on the work at hand rather than the trappings success might bring. He solely wants to succeed by the merit of his work. Sadly Jimmy passed away in 2004 leaving a wife and two sons.