Details
- Dimensions
- 7ʺW × 7ʺD × 7ʺH
- Styles
- Contemporary
- Period
- 1990s
- Country of Origin
- South Africa
- Item Type
- Vintage, Antique or Pre-owned
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- Materials
- Ceramic
- Condition
- Good Condition, Original Condition Unaltered, Some Imperfections
- Color
- Black
- Condition Notes
- no condition issues no condition issues less
- Description
-
Contemporary Zulu Beer Pot by Thembi Nala. Signed on bottom.
Thembi Nala was taught by her grandmother, Siphiwe, and by … more Contemporary Zulu Beer Pot by Thembi Nala. Signed on bottom.
Thembi Nala was taught by her grandmother, Siphiwe, and by her mother, Nesta Nala. Aged 12, she began sculpting guinea fowl birds in clay. Later her mother taught her to make pots in the traditional Zulu way. As South African art museums and galleries began to recognize virtuoso ceramics, Thembi Nala established a career in her own right. She decorates vessels with low-relief figures and scenes, but also makes pots of classic Zulu form and decoration.
Zulu pots, made for the ritualized brewing and consumption of sorghum beer, are spiritual vessels, linked to the ancestors who govern all fertility. Pots are decorated, blackened, and burnished to please the spirits. Undecorated brewing pots are especially sacred because fermentation is a metaphor of conception. less
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