Andile Dyalvane, the South African ceramic artist has been engaged in one of his most ambitious undertakings: a series of sculptural stools inspired by his lexicon of symbols entitled iThongo (ancestral dreamscapes). Dyalvane describes this resonant project — which draws on his work as a community healer of the Amaxhosa tribe — as ‘a gathering of dreams – seated in the soul, held by the spirits of our ancestors.’
Andile Dyalvane tells: "the first time I actually professionally touched clay was in 1996, before that, having grown up in the Eastern Cape (of South Africa) in the countryside, I grew up as a sort of farmer — a head boy, the one that’s a shepherd. Those were my duties. You have livestock, you have land, you have everything that, as a child, is assigned to you as a chore. During that time, I would find time go and take clay, and it was child’s play. You shouldn’t be doing that as a child, because your job should be doing A B C — you shouldn’t be playing with clay, but, I found myself drawn into this medium and fascinated by the clay — even without knowing the technological aspects or even seeing anyone making objects, artefacts, or pots.’
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