Sculptor Lungelo Gumede creates life-sized waxworks of pop stars and political figures. The waxwork sculptor features on African Voices as CNN International travels to South Africa to meet him. Here Lungelo Gumede discusses his inspirations and love for art and his motivation to create these iconic sculptures.
CNN hears how Gumede’s artistic passion began from an early age, “Growing up in a rural area, where I come from, every time when the teacher asks you what do you want to be when you grow up, most of the kids will say doctor, police. The only thing I would do was to come back from school and do my drawings because I grew up drawing”.
The young artist speaks about the inspiration and motivation he received to pursue art, recalling his grandmother who he says, “always told me you can only be what you want to be. If you want this, you can make it, you can do it if you really want it.”
A wax museum in Africa
Lungelo Gumede speaks about how a trip to New York opened his eyes to the opportunities available with sculpting: “I was inspired by the Madame Tussaud museum when I was in New York for the exhibition of my painting, I was given an opportunity to live in Manhattan …when I visited the Madame Tussaud museum and I thought ‘wow, wow.’ They can do that, why can’t we have something like that at home. So, when I came back to South Africa I realized there’s a need for us to have a wax museum.”
Gumede goes on to explain his desire to create Africa’s first ever waxwork museum to showcase an Africa that is iconic, powerful and full of culture. In celebration of 100 years of Nelson Mandela, Gumede created a series of sculptures of the South African President from his youth, his presidency and retirement.
He describes Mandela as, “the man who brought us peace, the man who brought us democracy, the man who fought for us so that we can be who we are today with all the freedom that we have thanks to this man. That’s why we celebrate him.”
Citing the inspiration and influence of famous people, Gumede discusses the subjects of his waxworks: “Celebrities to me are those people who are celebrated by people for the things they do. They inspire us, the young people, so the reason I’m doing them is they have that impact to our community”.
‘I challenge myself’
Artistic freedom and working for himself is important. “What I love most about my job is it actually gets the best out of me, I become myself, I work at my own pace… I do what I like, whenever I like it… I create my own things that I like, you know, I’m just free, it’s just freedom.”
He continues and explains how he constantly strives for improvement: “I’m always inspired by my last work. They say you are as good as the last work that you do so always in the morning I try to challenge myself to wake and do better than what I did yesterday.”
Lungelo Gumede offers his encouragement to others and stating “coming from the kind of background I come from, it doesn’t stop you from achieving your goal. Anything is possible – you just have to dream big”.
Who: Waxwork sculptor Lungelo Gumede
What: South African wax museum
Where: CNN African Voices
Airing dates and times: African Voices (SAST) on CNN International:
18 August 2018 7am (SAST), 2.30pm (SAST), 00.30pm (SAST), 4.30am (SAST)
19 August 2018 7.30am (SAST), 8pm (SAST), 5am (SAST)
20 August 2018 10.30am (SAST)
21 August 2018 10:30am (SAST)
CNN African Voices: www.cnn.com/africanvoices
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