Details
All clays reclaimed
H 12.2 x dia. 8.2 cm
From the series 'Leftovers'
Being in between (cultures, countries) often means that something is left behind.
Not always permanently. In each situation. In each context. In each location. We pick and choose those parts of us that will be most appropriate, most useful. Is that right? Natural? Or is it pure survival?
I once told my dad (a black man) that I felt I belonged nowhere.
Neither here, nor there. In the wake of my black consciousness which I was experiencing in London, where I couldn’t fully relate to the Black British experience neither as a foreigner.
In the new places and circles I wanted to inhabit, I felt an outsider. The same feeling I was increasingly feeling towards the spaces I had always been part of. The universal experience of the mixed-race child or the immigrant, perhaps.
He said, ‘You are an amphibious person. You are extremely lucky, as you can be everywhere. Be aware of that.”
And that is an art, not only a gift.
The codes, the language, the references... changing depending on where we are. Whom we speak to. The amphibious being’s physiology changing to survive in water, or on the land.
Having recently travelled to Equatorial Guinea and then straight after to Spain to finally come back ‘home’ in London, I started reflecting upon what I leave behind and its impact.
I moved to London at 25. Still a work-in-progress young woman (very much still WIP today as a matter of fact). It has been in London where I’ve become aware of and embraced my blackness, my womanhood and my queerness.
So when I go ‘back’ to the two other countries I could call home, something’s gotta give: something is not fully coming with me, or it needs to be softened, unspoken, laughed at or ignored.
The transformation to avoid arguments, being outcasted or judged.
A gift or a curse? What’s left behind?
I made the Leftover pieces with the trimmings from the other ‘full’ pieces — the acceptable parts. A little homage to all those of us who don’t fall under the norm of whichever place we find ourselves in at a certain moment in time. An ode to what is compromised. To that which makes us special and whole.
The clay I couldn’t discard. So here they are.
For those of us in the margins.
For those of us amphibious beings of human life.
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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