Emiso Ceramics was founded by Andile Delvane and Zizi Poposwa. They are master ceramicists from the Eastern Cape and they reside in Cape Town, South Africa. Emiso Ceramics is a word derived to mean a better future or better tomorrow. It's a manifest of a better tomorrow through the technology and the mechanism of clay and ceramic. And in some way, shape or form, the ceramics are an archiving of our history so that they can serve as a time capsule in many ways for those in the future to understand what we are achieving today. Emisu's residency program comes from our experience as artists From our experience as artists in the 20 years that we've been doing the work and as in our culture as well, we've basically been raised to be able to welcome people and this is what we've been doing in our space, welcoming, sharing our space with our community? Basically a platform where we invite artists and local artists, international artists, for them to have a space in our studio, which is a functioning studio, and they get to have access to the resources of the space. It is for a professional artist and so that does not need us to see to them in terms of help them realize what it is that they want to do. And so we decided that we do this formally and welcome artists from different parts of the world. We started with the local artists and now it was Jacob who we've just recently welcomed from Austria. I'm Jakob Bartmann. I'm a visual artist from Austria doing a residency here in Cape Town at EMISO. So currently we have Jacob Burtman as an artist residency. And it excites me because about two years ago, we were invited in Austria to take part in an artist residency organized by the upper Austrian government, which is beautiful. And so we said yes. And when I say we, it's because I was with the fellow other artists, my daughter Fanny and Kuma Mawin spent three months, they took care of us. Now why I'm saying this was important that we have now Jacob here, it's because one of the things when you go to an artistic residency is to form relationships, to create links of sharing who you are, where you're coming from, with the country and the host. And so you learn about their ways of doing it, the culture, as we mentioned, the ways of working, techniques. This was very important because for me it fulfills the duty and the journey of why we went there because that invitation or ask that we should collaborate within the Austrian government to establish having the established in a residency they say that they would like to collaborate with us. Are we willing to host one of theirs? Take up then. They sent a call. We said yes, because for me, it was just a perfect, you know, fit or a result, at least. Because now, all the hospitality that we received and the resources and the kindness that we've received in Austria, we could then return that beautifully. And of course it's going to be different because this is Cape Town and this is South Africa. Jacob's residency, it was his first day being shown around, getting to see what sort of equipment we have and his questions about the techniques and how he's the materials that he's gonna be needing it was kind of like giving us an opportunity to get to know his technique before he even starts. When I came here I started to prepare grog cause I love like to to wedge grog like colored grog like it's a smaller clay particles which are pre-fired and okay I can also show it okay you can see it maybe you see like these white and yellow dots in this black colored stoneware and this is what I started with. So we got some local clay like some white stoneware and some terracotta clay and I brought some pigments from Austria and I dyed the stoneware and made grog out of it and yeah that took some some days so you have to dye it then you have to like break it to small particles and then you fire it and then you can use it so it was my first first week and it was funny then because after the first firing I decided that the particles are too big and I wanted to grind them even more. It was this like milling stone down in the studio and I asked Andile what it is and he told me it's a milling stone of, I don't know, Sissi's family in the Eastern Cape and it's just a half one, I can show you maybe. It's like this one. So you can see it's broken but it was maybe this size or so and you use it for for for milling like a grain and and I used it for for grinding my grog so that was quite fascinating and we know it as a grog grog which is the fired clay that you mix into some of the clay to make it harder or to make it have a texture we are aware of that you can buy that ready-made, but he was creating his own. And particularly, it had the intention of having a particular color. And so that was fascinating. And then, of course, then his theme was fascinating because we're very familiar. But in his perspective, it's different how he's take to the silo or to the storage vessel and so on and so on. So for me already it was so beautiful because this is a subject that I'm familiar with as well. But in terms of how he articulated, how executed and how open he is to the information and change how this could tend to be, that was quite beautiful. So this is what excited about it so i was able to just concentrate on my processes um without having disturbing things around what i found interesting that i i i did a lot of like cycling here um and that also informed my pieces a lot because I'm always searching for like not visible or not that visible or not visible for all people things like especially architectural things so hidden spaces in the sense of factories, silos. But the bicycle gave me a lot of freedom with seeing more hidden spaces or driving around the city. Because I felt very safe and comfortable on the bike and I found like beautiful spaces on the bike like I drove along the coast but before you reach the coast you have to drive through Woodstock which was a very space I don't know 10 or 20 years before with a lot of factories and and so so it was beautiful to explore these spaces by bike I also started running some weeks ago yeah it was it's nice I normally don't do sports at all. But it felt good to go for a run in the evening. Some of the processes of him creating, looking at one of his shapes that he's created, which is derived from a corrugated zinc. And this is a material that we use a lot here in South Africa. And due to his visit in the location, he got to experience some of it used as a housing method. Yes, and that's one of the special pieces that I love from his forms that he's created from here. Yeah, since the first days I arrived, I was very confronted with the concept of ancestors, or like confronted with my own ancestors, so I thought a lot about that and and I think I thought about that a lot because what what I met here was a very living community like people who are meeting also after work and sharing thoughts so I tried to to keep this this research about the containers the silos the vessels so like the vessel is very important for me for me like coming from from the applied ceramics for from doing an apprenticeship as a potter really. The functional vessel or the cup were very important in that. And then when you're going to art, you figure out that you can fill a container with everything you can fill a vessel with sorts with concepts with whatever and for me a very stunning vessel was the studio here also like filled with inspiring people and with a lot of new and different cultures I lived in new concepts new ideas and especially this idea of preserving the cultural acts of the Xhosa tribe, but also catalyze them, bring them into this urban art scene, life here in Woodstock or Cape Town. Observing Jacob has been an interesting process. As Emiso is really a time capsule for those in the future, observing him is in some way, shape or form its own time capsule. And speaking to him is its own time capsule. And speaking to him is its own time capsule because it is like speaking to someone who's representing my ancestors. And so when we speak, a lot of my statements as a curator come across as a question because I'm going, okay, you as an artist, I think this would be interesting to do. That would be a normal way of phrasing that. But then I go, you as an ancestor, I would say, do you think this is interesting to do? The experience of being a person is being a silo. Which is to mean that each of us requires to be a silo at some point in time. We require to be alone. As much as we are community creatures, we do need to have a space within ourselves that we can discover ourselves and that we can rediscover ourselves. And that does require us to really be a silo in order to do that. It requires silence. It requires internal introspection. It needs us to be, in a sense, non-community. And it made me come up with the question again, because I'm speaking to my ancestor is that perhaps we should should we be silos at some point in time so that we know who we are when we contribute to a community because if we just contribute without introspecting, then what are we adding really at the end of the day to this community? The show is giving me a new light on what it means to go into your internal fortress of solitude and understand that this is a place that if you pray in it and you find it and you craft it, when you come out of it you can really contribute confidently to the community that you are conserving through clay. One of the key things of residency when you invite such a person is that these two of you get to learn something. So that's how we enrich ourselves. That's the benefit. Well, it's just being able to commune together, exchange ideas, and also a bit of our language. The Tamago that he now can speak and understanding the meaning behind our names and just how we get to share what we have amongst each other including him as well yeah that was special to be able to have an exchange with him and for his the fact that his it's his first time in South Africa and get to experience not just myself and Ndele but engage with the team as well. We've got a production team that we work with. We've got an administration team, marketing team. So he got to fit in and became part of the family. This speaks to the culture of the studio, ceremonial culture of the studio to be specific, as we do celebrate milestones. And so Jacob's arriving here, we had to have a celebration. We had to have a certain milestone, initiation, if you may. And it was a good time because we were celebrating the South African heritage. And so we then had a naming ceremony for him. And so you get the name by us observing you as you are this new person arriving in our space. We observe your behavior. It could be a funny name. It could be, you know, it may be funny, but it means something, and you may be guided to follow what that means, because the intention is good. So we were watching him the other day. We love music. We jam and everything. And so he played Ludwig's guitar. Well, he can play some guitar and can sing a bit. And so he was so in his own and so one of the string broke and so when you do that it's like packing something so it's to dole that's the name so then the name he was given was white don't know so if you were to translate that put into context for you to put into practice if it's a human being. So he managed to pluck us out of our comfort zone and bring us to the persons that we are. And so himself, donula is basically to pluck and to uproot something and bring it up to the surface and so that's the fitting and he can choose how one you know use or put into context for themselves and it's a difficult way of translating the word in the cause of to English in terms of what it means but there's the essence of it. Wai do nula. Beautiful. I really watched some YouTube videos in the beginning and I wrote down a lot of Nkosa or Isinghosa words but I'm very bad in learning languages. Also my English sucks and of course it's not my first language. But I can tell you that I got a name. It's a white ruler. And it means like a person who unplugged something. So I had this naming ceremony on the Heritage Day that was interesting and I felt very honored also and it was like in the circle where I'm exhibiting now. So this is the place where all these cultural acts are taking place and where you sit together, also after works and also casual in a way. Why don't you? Why don't you? And yours? My choice. What is it? Mine is? Yeah. It's advanced. It means advanced. It's the truth.