Tamar Mason

Tamar Mason uses clay, found objects and cattle horns as her chosen medium. Tamar Mason’s sculptural clay figures are hand built using the traditional coiling technique favoured by women in Africa for centuries. Wax, ochres, oxides and spices such as turmeric are rubbed into kiln fired figures whilst others are pit fired. The engraved cattle horns refer to cattle as a symbol of wealth and prestige in Africa. The co-opting of cultural artifacts and the contrasts between urban and rural experiences are things that energize and excite Tamar about working and living in ‘this fabulous country’.

Tamar Mason’s work refers to the experience of being a woman in Southern Africa. “By virtue of my skin colour I am seen as an outsider to some of the rituals and traditions that often define one as being African. At the same time being a woman and mother transcends issues of tribe and links one to a common experience of exhaustion, nappies, joy and guilt. By virtue of my gender I am an outsider to the experience of being a male in Africa but I am an insider to many of the facets that define being a woman in Africa”.

Tamar has combined community project work with large commissions. She led a team of thirty women from Kwaggafontein (Mpumalanga) to collaborate with a group of women from Ekulendeni to carry out 35m x 3.35m wall hanging for the Legislative Assembly Chamber in Nelspruit. In 2005/6 she was commissioned by the Origins Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand to create eleven panels measuring 2m x 4.5m.

Since 2004 Tamar Mason has focused her ceramic work and creating female figures that range between 70cm to 2m high. These figures explore conceptual issues that she has previously worked with in her earlier vessels.

Information courtesy of www.artprintsa.com