Clay Formes and the resurgence of African sculptural traditions

Mail & Guardian

22-07-2025

Martine Jackson shapes clay to document emotive journeys, such as Silent Resolve
At the periphery of Joza township in Makhanda, just before its core unfolds, cliff faces rise in majesty — striations of ochre, rust and gold glowing with a celestial intensity.
Clay appears to form itself there, as though the earth is recalling its own shape. And yet the nearby institution insisted (at least during my tenure) on importing clay for its sculpture department. The material on its very doorstep dismissed. Clay can symbolise this paradox: abundant yet overlooked, persistent yet devalued.
The book, Clay Formes: Contemporary Clay From South Africa (2023), is something of a response to this limitation. It has a compelling survey of artists, many rooted in that very region, working with the earth beneath their feet.
Clay Formes emerged from this ethos as a result of extensive travel, door-to-door conversations and nearly 100 interviews. I spoke to Olivia Barrell, whose path was destined to lead to this publication, about how she came to map the contemporary landscape of local clay and ceramic practice.
'I was born in Johannesburg, but I went to Paris at 18 because I got into Sorbonne University, where I studied history of art with a specialisation in ceramics. I stayed for 10 years and did my postgraduate degrees in Chinese and 17th-century ceramics,' she says.
'When I moved back to South Africa about eight or nine years ago, I became aware of the ceramic artists here; the level of the work was really world class. I have a background across the art world; I've worked as a writer, academic, in auction houses, the secondary market, market analysis and with collectors. I decided to build something that filled a gap I saw in the contemporary African art space.'
Her gallery, Art Formes, is devoted solely to contemporary sculpture. Opened in 2021, it foregrounds marginalised sculptural practices through a slow, text-rich and museologically inspired approach. Art Formes is a hybrid institution; part gallery, part living archive. Its name, drawn from the French forme, meaning 'shape' or 'work of art', redefines how contemporary African sculpture is viewed and valued.
Works by Sbonelo Luthuli, such as Umsamo (above), draw on Bantu spirituality and cosmology. Photos: Iterations of Earth
Barrell explains, 'I wanted to disrupt terminology around sculpture. Sculptural works have often been categorised as craft or design, implying mass production and distancing the artist's hand. I wanted to move away from that.
'Our main focus is clay, both because it's close to my heart and rich in this country's history. We also use [the term] clay formes instead of ceramics because ceramics only refers to clay when fired. So you're ruling out all artists that work in earth-based practices, which we include. We work with clay and we work with all offcuts of the earth as well.'
Barrell elaborates, 'I like the term 'ceramic master' because it's an ancient term that refers to an artist, whichever gender, that has mastered the art of ceramics.'
The focus on language is palpable.
Barrell says, 'It's also why I like ancient terms such as 'pot' or 'vessel'. I don't think that these are tied to utilitarian functions. For many, many centuries, cultures have been making pots and vessels that are not utilitarian.'
This linguistic depth broadens the understanding of earth-based art beyond craft and utility to encompass deeper cultural and artistic significance.
I kept seeing this term 'slow curation' and I was curious about its implications.
'It's based on my interest in … more slow, text-heavy, explorative curation,' Barrell explains. 'I felt that South African galleries were dominated by a white cube approach to curation aka a lack of curation. And I wanted to bring the museum curatorial style into the contemporary art world
'We don't just believe in selling works. I only work with artists that insert into our art history. So the narrative is essential — it's paramount for me as a gallery owner.
'At Art Formes, there's a strong archival focus … Clay is indigenous to this country, unlike painting, which is a Western import … Many ceramic artists have passed away undocumented.
'Clay is embedded in the cosmological realm; Nguni communities used it to communicate with ancestral worlds.'
Her vision is not nostalgic but decolonial; shaped by a feminist commitment to recovering lost legacies.
'Sculptural ceramics in this country were often pioneered by women in the 1970s, which is a history that has also been almost undocumented.'
Art Formes represents artists such as Siyabonga Fani (born in 1981), whose smoke-fired terracotta evokes ancestral memory and township life; Sbonelo Luthuli (born 1981), whose conceptual ceramics draw on Bantu spiritual and cosmological traditions; Nicholas Sithole (born 1964), a master potter known for hand-built Zulu forms held in major collections; Clive Sithole (born 1971), whose work bridges Zulu and Venda traditions and explores land, race and animal life; and Nigerian artist Eva Obodo (born 1963), who uses charcoal, unfired clay, wild clay and raw earth.
Dante wrote, 'All other means would have been short … but that God's own Son humbled Himself to take on mortal clay' (Paradiso, Canto VII).
These words elevate earth-based materials to the sacred threshold where divinity consents embodiment. Making with earth therefore, is entering this liminal space, both medium and metaphor: archive, altar, agent inviting communion with the grounded sublime. Clay's continuum is proof of a collective yearning for substance even amid a screen-saturated, artificial intelligence-driven contemporary moment.
'We crave what is real. We crave what is tactile,' Barrell notes. 'We're drawn to objects that are still made by the human hand.'
If Gen Z's technocritical refrain is 'touch grass', Art Formes offers an audaciously ancient call: touch clay.
Iterations of Earth: Exploring Multitudes
is a revolving group show reimagining earth as sculptural medium, on view from 7 June to 4 September at Art Formes, The Old Biscuit Mill, 375 Albert Road, Woodstock. An exhibition walkabout with select artists, including Ledelle Moe, Martine Jackson, Clive Sithole, Sbonelo Luthuli, Jo Roets, Eva Obodo, Nic Sithole, Siyabonga Fani, and Astrid Dahl, will take place on Saturday, 26 July, from 10am to 11am.