260543 - African Mbigou stone head on stand from Cyril Biyoghe - Gabon
€185.00
African Mbigou stone head on stand from Cyril Biyoghe - Gabon.
Hand-carved from a single piece of Mbigou stone.
Size are 20 cm including the stand and only the stone head are 17 cm high.
Twenty-six-year-old Cyril Biyoghe from Gabon says he gets immeasurable satisfaction from carving a stone locally known as Mbigou. Of course he gets an income from the sculptures, but the positive reviews he receives from customers offer him greater gratification.
In Alibandeng district located in Gabon's capital Libreville, Cyril is a celebrity. Standing at 5'6 tall, and wearing a near-permanent smile, he is easy to pick out of a crowd. In his work, he has shaped the Mbigou stone into almost everything – a sculpture of a human body, animal replicas, inanimate objects… you name it.
Cyril is a member of Mbigou stone artists, a leading association in Libreville.
"My mother worked at a shop located near the Mbigou stone sculptors' workshop. During my childhood, I would get fascinated seeing the artists transform stones into beautiful works of art," Cyril tells TRT Afrika.
A health problem forced him out of school in his teenage years. He, thereafter, decided to pursue stone art.
Mbigou stone is the main material that Cyril centres his craft around. The stone is white, grayish-green or brown colour.