Friedman Benda is pleased to present ‘OoNomathotholo: Ancestral Whispers’ a new body of work and the fourth exhibition with the gallery by South African artist, healer and spiritual leader, Andile Dyalvane. The exhibition opened to the public on the 5th of September and will run until the 2nd of November 2024 at 515 West 26th Street, New York in the presence of the artist. Taking its title from the intergenerational whispers of the Xhosa people of Southern Africa, the works in ‘OoNomathotholo’ carry notes of ancient experience passed down through time. Dyalvane intermingles communal legacies with movement, flow and labor in his daily creative expression.
The new works show his relentless re-engagement with the language of his past and the reality of his present, by creating complex visual metaphors of courage, teaching, and possibility through craft, form and imagination. Comprising a series of large and powerful vessels, crafted during a period of personal and communal loss, the works embody a history of trauma and grief while offering a perspective of harmony and rejuvenation. These works were made over a period of two years in Dyalvane’s studio in Cape Town and during a residency in Austria. Several of the works on view were presented at the historic Chatsworth House in the UK in 2023 in the exhibition ‘Mirror Mirror: Reflections on Design at Chatsworth.’
Returning to a familiar lexicon, Andile Dyalvane imparts the spirit and symbolism of cycles in nature, shifting landscapes, flowing streams, cliffs, tributaries, valleys, peaks, and wildlife. But it is in the clay itself, drawn from the rivers in and around the artist’s place of birth in Ngobozana village in the Eastern Cape. Through these works, the viewer is struck by immediate and visceral communication with the land and the whispers of his ancestors. Each vessel tells a story; they are torn, lacerated and punctuated with overtly executed marks and groves. Reminders of the Xhosa practice of scarification live in the carvings and incisions but there are new directions too. One hallmark is the introduction of a vibrant color palette indicative of wildflowers and torched earth. Another is the total structural collapse of his vessels in places as a metaphor for resilience.
Embracing these “happy accidents” of fallen, drooping, and crumbled surfaces as points upon which to build strength, Dyalvane is able to balance his compositions and build anew. It is precisely at least these junctures that the loss of brothers, sisters, and cousins are mourned and healed, and the historic erosion of landscapes and separation from ancestral lands are processed. Framed by the spirit and energy of a village kraal (enclosure) or ceremonial gathering, the exhibition presents these monumental vessels in a circle, hovering around a central totem.
Symbolising his own practice of gifting a small pot to a new homestead each time he visits his village in the Eastern Cape, Dyalvane seems to be invoking his communal gatherings where we all are invited to take part, to reinforce connection, to energise and engage. After all, Dyalvane’s gift is bringing collective healing through these objects of exquisite craft and visual storytelling.
Andile Dyalvane is co-founder of Imiso Ceramics. Dyalvane’s work is in the collections of the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Yingge Ceramic Museum in Taipei, Iziko South African National Gallery (SANG) in Cape Town, NMMU Art Museum in Port Elizabeth and the Corobrik Ceramics Collection of Pretoria Art Museum in Pretoria, South Africa. He has presented his ceramics in four exhibitions at Southern Guild and two exhibitions at Friedman Benda, as well as museums all over the world, including the National Art Museum of China, the Vitra Design Museum, and Iziko SANG. A member of the International Academy of Ceramics, Dyalvane has received residencies in Denmark, France, the United States, UK and Taiwan. He shares his knowledge through master classes and workshops in South Africa and internationally. He is the recipient of the 2015 Design Foundation Icon Award.
