Baney Clay: An Unearthed Identity

Baney Clay: An Unearthed Identity is a journey I have been wanting to embark on for a long while. I am half Spanish and half Equatorial Guinean, but as I grew up those two halves weren’t balanced. I was rather detached from my African roots and, consequently, from my blackness. And so I grew up thinking I was as white as the rest of the kids at my school; no different.

The awakening of my blackness has been marked by three key events in my life: the first time we all - my parents and my siblings - went to Equatorial Guinea (EG) (which was the first time my dad returned in 30 years) in 2010; when I read ‘Women, Race and Class’ by Angela Y. Davis in 2016, which then pushed me to be more informed about black feminism in the UK; and this project.

A couple of years ago, my parents brought me a bag of clay from EG for which I never found time. It has been this year, 2020, when I - at last - have purposefully dedicated 3 months to this clay and to myself. So I hope you like what you see!

My aim with this body of work was to challenge the ‘norm’ in Art. On the one hand, Art from the South has historically been considered ‘primitive’ or ‘exotic’ and belittled. And on the other, when it comes to Pottery - a traditionally female craft -, we can clearly see how the moment the wheel is invented and men take over, hand-built pots - those mostly made by women within their domestic compounds and used in the everyday life of agricultural communities - are taken for granted and assigned no artistic value. Back in the North, as the Silk Road expands, porcelain becomes everyone’s obsession and pushes innovation in European pottery circles; while earthenware loses its popularity.

I strongly believe that progress will only come when patriarchy is over and so Men and Women collaborate and are empathetic as to each other’s experiences; when colonialist and Western-centric views on pretty much everything are a thing of the past and the North and the South are one; when the South stops being ‘the back yard’ of Western countries.

And so, I have brought all these concepts together on this project, through clay.

Firstly I will explain that the name I have given to the clay and the project, Baney, is the name of my dad’s home village in EG. It is located in the Bioko Norte Province of Bioko, the largest island in EG where the capital Malabo is, and has a population of 2,365 as per their 2005 census.

The Baney pieces are made with different mixtures of Draycott (Stoneware) or Porcelain and my Baney Clay, it being an allegory of the South and Women. While the smaller ones are all wheel-thrown, the larger ones are made by mixing throwing and coiling.

It is extremely interesting to see how the more intense the mix is, the harder it is for both clays to adjust to each other, as it has historically happened between the North and the South or Men and Women. My two favourite reactions are:

• On the most intense mix of all (P3), that is 50% Porcelain + 50% Baney Clay, fired at 1260℃. Iron, present in a very high percentage, feels trapped and wants to leave, creating a bloating effect on the surfaces with no cracks, luckily.

• When mixing very grogged Baney Clay and Porcelain, some green larger coiled pieces cracked terribly; or on those fired the iron stones stand out creating a beautiful contrast.

To me, these are some beautiful clay metaphors about how, still today, the South needs to be made palatable for us in the North to assimilate it. Or how  Women traditionally haven’t been allowed to be loud, speak up and claim their rights; or how boldness, strength or assertiveness have only been considered male attributes.

The ultimate metaphor of this ‘clash of civilisations’ I have replicated with clay is cracks. I knew they were a possibility, especially given that since I had a limited amount of Baney Clay, tests were a luxury so my knowledge of its behaviour still is kind of limited. And it happened. Which is fine. What amazes me is that one of the larger pieces cracked on the bottom, which is the thrown part! It is a shame but I think it also is part of their beauty. And I hope I can fly to EG soon to get more clay and keep playing.

I also leave you below a photo where you can appreciate the Baney Clay in its raw form and the beautiful contrast between it and the light finishing of the first two-legged vessel I made as a prototype. And on my blog you can also read some of my first reflections on African Pottery and History as I started working on and researching for the project, as well as about the journey that has brought me here.

The reason why I said at the beginning that this project had been a key moment in my journey to connect with my roots and my blackness is because the same way some African pots are used in ceremonies to connect with ancestors, these pieces are to me a direct connection to mine and my past.

All these pieces are be part of ‘Gatherers’ - a physical and virtual group exhibition at Thrown Contemporary, curated in collaboration with OmVed Gardens in Highgate. Visit now on www.gatherers.co.

See full list of pieces with further details and measurements here.

BEHIND BANEY CLAY

• ‘In Conversation with Bisila Noha’. A Talk + Q&A as part of Gatherers - Transcription and video here

• ‘On Unity, Humankind and Clay’. An article I wrote for Plural Magazine - Read here

• ‘A Life Journey Through Clay’. A piece about my own personal journey and some inspiration behind the project - Read here

• ‘Welcome to Baney!’ A virtual trip to Baney, where the clay comes from - Read here

• ‘X African Works - South African flowers.’ A poem by Alice McCabe, co-curator of Gatherers - Read here

• First thoughts on African pottery and History - Read here

Spanish translation available here.