X African Works - South African flowers by Alice McCabe

My Baney Clay: An Unearthed Identity project is currently part of Gatherers - an online and physical exhibition that explores the distinctive connections of different ceramic artists with their clays.

The exhibition was launched on Saturday May 16th and has been curated by Thrown Contemporary - the gallery that represents me -, OmVed Gardens - the urban green space nestled behind Highgate High Street where the exhibition is set up - and Meta Fleur - a London-based floral design studio.

One of the most exciting moments of the Preview Zoom Event for me was when Alice McCabe, founder of Meta Fleur, shared a poem she had written to collect all the thoughts and feelings she had while preparing the flower arrangements for my work.

To me, art is nothing more than something that instigates feelings into people. Is it craft? Is it art? That’s the never-ending question about pottery.

From my humble point of view, if a ceramic piece - or a painting, or a photograph, or any other creation for that matter - can make someone feel, think and be inspired, it is art.

And to hear and read a poem someone has written after having seen and touched my work is the ultimate goal of why I make. One I had never actually even dreamt of.

Thank you, Alice. And I hope you all enjoy it.

Use this as a chance to travel smooth warm gradient of scrubby fragile flowers

crunchy explorations: tones of land and clay

vessels of identity, flowers twist round suggest deviations: forms getting acquainted with forms

surprising rigidity and uprightness captures resilience of work, power and grounding of two footed vessels

power moves up the vessel

the arrangement like laying flowers in someones hands