Vulisango Ndwandwa

Vulisango Ndwandwa was born in Mount Fletcher (former Transkei) in 1980. He completed his High School education in Matatiele and has continued his studies completing his National Diploma and B. Tech in ceramic design at the Port Elizabeth Technikon. Vulisango has taken part in a number of exhibitions such at the Standard Bank National Arts Festival (Grahamstown) and Transition (a Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality traveling exhibition). His excellence in ceramic work has earned him high acclaim. As well as receiving a number of awards for his work, Vulisango’s art resides in such esteemed places as the Eastern Cape Premier’s office and the collection of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Museum. Vulisango has lectured part-time at NNMU and a number of articles feature his work.

“Most of my work is coiled, highly burnished and pit-fired. The crackled effect is achieved through the resist slip and RAKU glaze, which is peeled off on most occasions to expose the naked clay, hence “naked raku”. With the pit-fired pots, the smoke seeps through the cracks of the resist slip and form spontaneous patterns. In the end, the pot is only made up of clay and smoke.

I have a strong inclination towards coiling because of the level of involvement I have with the clay and the direction to which I can take the pot regarding form and size. However, the pots are fired in uncontrolled environment and the smoking process plays its essential and unpredictable part. Simplistic lines and dots designs are applied to the pots and these areas are not slip resisted and are open to carbonisation.

I have recently become more involved with the surface and I am relentlessly searching for development that comes from repetition, lines and markings on the surface. I am working towards the ideal and the most natural relationship of surface to form.

It is the combination of the unsophisticated traditional techniques of coiling and smoke firing that I find fascinating “.

Information courtesy of the artist.