Details
25% White Stoneware + 75% Baney Clay
H 8 x dia. 8.2 cm
From the series 'Baney Clay':
This is the fourth iteration of the project I started back in 2020 using Baney Clay I foraged in April 2023.
That trip I really didn’t want to bring clay. I didn’t want to go through the stress of going through security at different airports. But my uncle Silvano convinced me to do it. Together, we went on his pickup truck to the spot where, over four years prior, he had foraged clay with my parents. I wasn’t there that time.
I am glad he pushed me to do it as making these pieces brings me an immense amount of joy. The freedom of throwing them on the wheel. Each piece a different shape.
The freedom I allow myself when trimming them, mixing techniques to let the clay and the shapes speak for themselves.
The playfulness mixing the clays, trying to imagine how they will look after the firings.
We all know clay is alive and we are fascinated by its transformation. All the surprises! These pieces are full of them. The stones that come to the surface when the clay has not been processed or fully refined. The cracks. The specks of colour travelling the surface of the pots following the rhythm of the wheel’s spinning motion.
I would keep them all. So I hope you love them and want to take one (or many) home.
And it is all about the idea of home. My second trip to Baney in 2023 was very magical as I embodied the connection to Equatorial Guinea — to the Bioko Island more specifically — I had been developing through clay, through this project, since 2020. “Once there, the gap finally closed. I felt that connection and deepened it.” I wrote on a blog entry about the trip.
As I work this clay I keep understanding myself. I keep evolving.
So when you look at them, please bear this in mind. They are a portal to my life, to life in Baney, my ancestors both there and in Spain.
To bring you closer to the land where this soil comes from, I have collaborated with multidisciplinary artist Maxine Pennington, Founder of Extensive Conversations, to, through sound, transport us all to Baney, wherever we are.
Bisila Noha 2024.
About the Artist
Bisila Noha is a Spanish-Equatoguinean London-based ceramic artist, researcher and writer.
With her work she aims to challenge Western views on art and craft; to question what we understand as productive and worthy in capitalist societies; and to reflect upon the idea of home and oneness pulling from personal experiences in different pottery communities. She is a storyteller with a particular interest in the contributions of women of colour to the history of art and craft. As such, her words are a bridge bringing the past - the forgotten, the ignored, the belittled - to the present; to us.
Bisila’s ceramics practice extends from wheel-thrown pieces with the distinctive addition of marbled slip decoration to create eye-catching abstract landscapes; to sculptural pieces mixing throwing, coiling and carving which connect her to her roots, the makers that precede her and our past.
Her work can be found in many public and private collections including the V&A, the Crafts Council, Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery and the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.
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