Uphiso LikaNandi, burnished terracotta clay,
‘Ukhamba Lufuza Imbiza’ is a Zulu knowledge system stating that the child will adapt or learn from their parents’ attributes be it a bad trait or a good one.
Ukhamba is a reservoir of all nourishment of humankind. Ukhamba unpacks the breaking of the traditional past/pot. Past/Pot is a concept that I am exploring, in the context of the historical observation of earthenware vessels in society. The ‘past’ relates to how significant Ukhamba is in the Zulu cultural phenomenon. The ‘pot’ then refers to the contemporary ideas that speak to creation as mothering things. The materiality of cultural objects reflects the ritual of spirituality. Relating this as a civilization of inheritance, it has developed from water. As a plant, it needs water, spirit, and earth to exist as a life form. Ukhamba holds food for the body to eat from. The earthenware vessel and the body are made from earth (Umhlabathi). The creator (UNkulunkulu) blessed the body with water to live, as water represents life and moulds or shapes clay, water is used to form a life. Water is the eternal spirit that connects the body to the creator. These artworks are water bodies, a site of ritual and where also feeding people through these water bodies, as food, something that links to our genealogy. In looking into representing genealogy, the blood information has the memory of the soul that keeps perpetuating. the mother mind incubates our own creativity.
This body of work wants to revise the ritual relationship between living memory and the inheritance of objects in the embodied culture. To highlight the importance of cultural ornaments and their relationship to their intention. In looking at the past references and names of the Zulu pottery culture I have to build a communication with these past ideas into contemporary ideas of what Ukahamba is used to be represented in our culture.
Ngabe UNkulunkulu usadala namanje?
Ifa likaMenzi?
Uknulunklu wadala waqeda, kusa buya laba abadalwa kuqala. The deepest wish is creation.
Ithunga LikaShaka, Burnished terracotta clay with polish,
In collaboration with Puselesto Masemene
We came together in collaboration to co-create through the techniques that we mastered in our individual art practices (pottery and printmaking). We both look to repurpose indigenous knowledge within a contemporary space that is a higher learning institution. In conversation with the collaboration, we have built a connection with our cultural similarities and differences. The aspect of working together has made one notice what aspects of culture, identity, perspectives, and experiences. In conversing through co-creation, we have become aware that there are some aspects of our cultures that are not acknowledged within prevailing knowledge systems. Through collaboration, we acknowledge these parts of our cultures that are overlooked, by unpacking the values of these indigenous practices (litema and iziqhaza). We have identified “the other” as what is foreign within the contemporary space we are in; which is a higher learning institution. The elements that our cultures hold will be applied to the artworks as a way to bring forth the idea of “the other” within a contemporary space. Also, to preserve the indigenous knowledge that was practised within cultures.
