WEBVTT 0 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:13.679 Emiso Ceramics was founded by Andile Delvane and Zizi Poposwa. They are master ceramicists 1 00:00:13.679 --> 00:00:23.679 from the Eastern Cape and they reside in Cape Town, South Africa. Emiso Ceramics is a word 2 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:27.280 derived to mean a better future or better tomorrow. 3 00:00:27.579 --> 00:00:35.179 It's a manifest of a better tomorrow through the technology and the mechanism of clay and ceramic. 4 00:00:36.259 --> 00:00:49.920 And in some way, shape or form, the ceramics are an archiving of our history so that they can serve as a time capsule 5 00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:56.399 in many ways for those in the future to understand what we are achieving today. 6 00:00:56.399 --> 00:01:02.640 Emisu's residency program comes from our experience as artists 7 00:01:09.260 --> 00:01:17.500 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 8 00:01:17.500 --> 00:01:32.640 we've been doing in our space, welcoming, sharing our space with our community? Basically a platform where we invite artists and local artists, 9 00:01:33.599 --> 00:01:38.719 international artists, for them to have a space in our studio, 10 00:01:38.959 --> 00:01:40.120 which is a functioning studio, 11 00:01:40.420 --> 00:01:45.420 and they get to have access to the resources of the space. 12 00:01:45.420 --> 00:01:53.140 It is for a professional artist and so that does not need us to see to them 13 00:01:53.140 --> 00:01:58.420 in terms of help them realize what it is that they want to do. 14 00:01:59.180 --> 00:02:06.459 And so we decided that we do this formally and welcome artists from different parts of the world. 15 00:02:07.239 --> 00:02:15.060 We started with the local artists and now it was Jacob who we've just recently welcomed from Austria. 16 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:27.360 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. 17 00:02:27.900 --> 00:02:32.080 And it excites me because about two years ago, 18 00:02:32.240 --> 00:02:38.240 we were invited in Austria to take part in an artist residency 19 00:02:38.240 --> 00:02:42.300 organized by the upper Austrian government, which is beautiful. 20 00:02:42.840 --> 00:02:44.099 And so we said yes. 21 00:02:44.819 --> 00:02:46.580 And when I say we, it's because 22 00:02:46.580 --> 00:02:53.000 I was with the fellow other artists, my daughter Fanny and Kuma Mawin spent three months, they 23 00:02:53.000 --> 00:03:00.620 took care of us. Now why I'm saying this was important that we have now Jacob here, it's 24 00:03:00.620 --> 00:03:07.659 because one of the things when you go to an artistic residency is to form relationships, 25 00:03:07.659 --> 00:03:13.139 to create links of sharing who you are, where you're coming from, with the country and the 26 00:03:13.139 --> 00:03:14.419 host. 27 00:03:14.419 --> 00:03:20.060 And so you learn about their ways of doing it, the culture, as we mentioned, the ways 28 00:03:20.060 --> 00:03:22.280 of working, techniques. 29 00:03:22.280 --> 00:03:25.879 This was very important because for me it fulfills the 30 00:03:25.879 --> 00:03:31.120 duty and the journey of why we went there because that invitation or ask 31 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:38.360 that we should collaborate within the Austrian government to establish having 32 00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:45.879 the established in a residency they say that they would like to collaborate with us. Are we willing to host one 33 00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:52.740 of theirs? Take up then. They sent a call. We said yes, because for me, it was just a perfect, 34 00:03:53.039 --> 00:04:00.840 you know, fit or a result, at least. Because now, all the hospitality that we received and the 35 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:05.280 resources and the kindness that we've received in Austria, 36 00:04:08.199 --> 00:04:08.560 we could then return that beautifully. 37 00:04:12.500 --> 00:04:12.580 And of course it's going to be different because this is Cape Town and this is South Africa. 38 00:04:19.379 --> 00:04:19.600 Jacob's residency, it was his first day being shown around, 39 00:04:24.519 --> 00:04:31.040 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 40 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:35.959 an opportunity to get to know his technique before he even starts. 41 00:04:35.959 --> 00:04:51.300 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 42 00:04:51.300 --> 00:04:58.800 particles which are pre-fired and okay I can also show it okay you can see it maybe 43 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:09.759 you see like these white and yellow dots in this black colored stoneware and this is what 44 00:05:09.759 --> 00:05:11.480 I started with. 45 00:05:11.480 --> 00:05:19.480 So we got some local clay like some white stoneware and some terracotta clay and I brought 46 00:05:19.480 --> 00:05:27.680 some pigments from Austria and I dyed the stoneware and made grog out of it and yeah that 47 00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:34.759 took some some days so you have to dye it then you have to like break it to 48 00:05:34.759 --> 00:05:41.360 small particles and then you fire it and then you can use it so it was my first 49 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:48.519 first week and it was funny then because after the first firing I decided 50 00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:53.120 that the particles are too big and I wanted to grind them even more. 51 00:05:53.120 --> 00:06:07.379 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 52 00:06:07.379 --> 00:06:16.920 family in the Eastern Cape and it's just a half one, I can show you maybe. 53 00:06:16.920 --> 00:06:19.100 It's like this one. 54 00:06:19.100 --> 00:06:28.480 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 55 00:06:28.480 --> 00:06:36.199 and I used it for for grinding my grog so that was quite fascinating and we know it as a grog 56 00:06:36.199 --> 00:06:41.860 grog which is the fired clay that you mix into some of the clay to make it harder or to make 57 00:06:41.860 --> 00:06:46.740 it have a texture we are aware of that you can buy that ready-made, but he was creating his own. 58 00:06:47.180 --> 00:06:50.319 And particularly, it had the intention of having a particular color. 59 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:52.000 And so that was fascinating. 60 00:06:52.620 --> 00:06:56.480 And then, of course, then his theme was fascinating because we're very familiar. 61 00:06:56.699 --> 00:07:04.079 But in his perspective, it's different how he's take to the silo or to the storage vessel 62 00:07:04.079 --> 00:07:05.000 and so on and so on. 63 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:10.000 So for me already it was so beautiful because this is a subject that I'm familiar with as well. 64 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:17.000 But in terms of how he articulated, how executed and how open he is to the information 65 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:21.000 and change how this could tend to be, that was quite beautiful. 66 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:26.480 So this is what excited about it so i was able to just concentrate on my 67 00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:38.079 processes um without having disturbing things around what i found interesting that i i i did 68 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:49.759 a lot of like cycling here um and that also informed my pieces a lot because I'm always searching for 69 00:07:49.759 --> 00:07:57.160 like not visible or not that visible or not visible for all people things like 70 00:07:57.160 --> 00:08:07.000 especially architectural things so hidden spaces in the sense of factories, silos. 71 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:18.000 But the bicycle gave me a lot of freedom with seeing more hidden spaces or driving around the city. 72 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:30.800 Because I felt very safe and comfortable on the bike and I found like beautiful spaces on the bike like I drove along the 73 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:50.799 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 74 00:08:50.799 --> 00:08:58.480 was beautiful to explore these spaces by bike I also started running some 75 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:05.659 weeks ago yeah it was it's nice I normally don't do sports at all. 76 00:09:10.899 --> 00:09:14.679 But it felt good to go for a run in the evening. Some of the processes of him creating, 77 00:09:15.519 --> 00:09:18.980 looking at one of his shapes that he's created, 78 00:09:19.179 --> 00:09:21.980 which is derived from a corrugated zinc. 79 00:09:22.820 --> 00:09:26.500 And this is a material that we use a lot here in South Africa. 80 00:09:26.919 --> 00:09:29.659 And due to his visit in the location, 81 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:36.120 he got to experience some of it used as a housing method. 82 00:09:37.080 --> 00:09:40.460 Yes, and that's one of the special pieces that I love 83 00:09:40.460 --> 00:09:42.919 from his forms that he's created from here. 84 00:09:42.919 --> 00:09:57.840 Yeah, since the first days I arrived, I was very confronted with the concept of ancestors, 85 00:09:57.840 --> 00:10:11.200 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 86 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:29.659 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 87 00:10:29.659 --> 00:10:39.279 the silos the vessels so like the vessel is very important for me for me like 88 00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:50.000 coming from from the applied ceramics for from doing an apprenticeship as a potter really. 89 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:57.000 The functional vessel or the cup were very important in that. 90 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:07.519 And then when you're going to art, you figure out that you can fill a container with everything you can fill a vessel 91 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:31.639 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 92 00:11:31.639 --> 00:12:10.639 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. 93 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:14.080 Observing Jacob has been an interesting process. 94 00:12:14.080 --> 00:12:17.600 As Emiso is really a time capsule for those in the future, 95 00:12:17.600 --> 00:12:24.960 observing him is in some way, shape or form its own time capsule. 96 00:12:24.960 --> 00:12:25.000 And speaking to him is its own time capsule. 97 00:12:25.500 --> 00:12:27.639 And speaking to him is its own time capsule 98 00:12:27.639 --> 00:12:31.460 because it is like speaking to someone 99 00:12:31.460 --> 00:12:34.679 who's representing my ancestors. 100 00:12:34.679 --> 00:12:36.639 And so when we speak, 101 00:12:38.840 --> 00:12:41.240 a lot of my statements as a curator 102 00:12:41.240 --> 00:12:44.120 come across as a question because I'm going, 103 00:12:44.120 --> 00:12:46.879 okay, you as an artist, I think this would be interesting to do. 104 00:12:48.320 --> 00:12:50.240 That would be a normal way of phrasing that. 105 00:12:50.340 --> 00:12:54.299 But then I go, you as an ancestor, I would say, do you think this is interesting to do? 106 00:12:54.360 --> 00:12:59.299 The experience of being a person is being a silo. 107 00:12:59.299 --> 00:13:06.320 Which is to mean that each of us requires to be a silo at some point in time. 108 00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:08.039 We require to be alone. 109 00:13:08.039 --> 00:13:10.919 As much as we are community creatures, 110 00:13:10.919 --> 00:13:15.879 we do need to have a space within ourselves 111 00:13:15.879 --> 00:13:20.320 that we can discover ourselves and that we 112 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:23.120 can rediscover ourselves. 113 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:26.340 And that does require us to really be a silo 114 00:13:26.340 --> 00:13:27.179 in order to do that. 115 00:13:27.179 --> 00:13:29.039 It requires silence. 116 00:13:29.039 --> 00:13:32.460 It requires internal introspection. 117 00:13:33.779 --> 00:13:35.179 It needs us to be, 118 00:13:39.240 --> 00:13:41.080 in a sense, non-community. 119 00:13:42.139 --> 00:13:44.679 And it made me come up with the question again, 120 00:13:44.679 --> 00:13:53.740 because I'm speaking to my ancestor is that perhaps we should should we be silos at some 121 00:13:53.740 --> 00:13:59.240 point in time so that we know who we are when we contribute to a community 122 00:13:59.240 --> 00:14:05.000 because if we just contribute without introspecting, 123 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:10.279 then what are we adding really at the end of the day 124 00:14:10.279 --> 00:14:11.220 to this community? 125 00:14:11.220 --> 00:14:15.360 The show is giving me a new light on what it means 126 00:14:15.360 --> 00:14:20.360 to go into your internal fortress of solitude 127 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:26.299 and understand that this is a place that if you pray in it and you find 128 00:14:26.299 --> 00:14:31.460 it and you craft it, when you come out of it you can really contribute confidently to 129 00:14:31.460 --> 00:14:35.220 the community that you are conserving through clay. 130 00:14:35.220 --> 00:14:39.820 One of the key things of residency when you invite such a person is that these two of 131 00:14:39.820 --> 00:14:41.100 you get to learn something. 132 00:14:41.100 --> 00:14:43.000 So that's how we enrich ourselves. 133 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:47.299 That's the benefit. Well, it's just being able to commune together, 134 00:14:48.519 --> 00:14:54.320 exchange ideas, and also a bit of our language. 135 00:14:55.620 --> 00:14:57.759 The Tamago that he now can speak 136 00:14:57.759 --> 00:15:01.340 and understanding the meaning behind our names 137 00:15:01.340 --> 00:15:08.559 and just how we get to share what we have amongst each other including him as well 138 00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:15.679 yeah that was special to be able to have an exchange with him and for his the fact that 139 00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:22.240 his it's his first time in South Africa and get to experience not just myself and Ndele but 140 00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:25.399 engage with the team as well. 141 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:27.700 We've got a production team that we work with. 142 00:15:30.460 --> 00:15:30.580 We've got an administration team, marketing team. 143 00:15:33.179 --> 00:15:33.320 So he got to fit in and became part of the family. 144 00:15:38.539 --> 00:15:39.659 This speaks to the culture of the studio, 145 00:15:41.960 --> 00:15:42.720 ceremonial culture of the studio to be specific, 146 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:51.559 as we do celebrate milestones. And so Jacob's arriving here, we had to have a celebration. 147 00:15:51.559 --> 00:15:57.519 We had to have a certain milestone, initiation, if you may. 148 00:15:57.519 --> 00:16:03.279 And it was a good time because we were celebrating the South African heritage. 149 00:16:03.279 --> 00:16:06.559 And so we then had a naming ceremony for him. 150 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:11.720 And so you get the name by us observing you 151 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:15.600 as you are this new person arriving in our space. 152 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:17.159 We observe your behavior. 153 00:16:17.620 --> 00:16:18.559 It could be a funny name. 154 00:16:18.700 --> 00:16:20.620 It could be, you know, it may be funny, 155 00:16:21.320 --> 00:16:23.059 but it means something, 156 00:16:23.179 --> 00:16:25.440 and you may be guided to follow what that means, 157 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:27.220 because the intention is good. 158 00:16:27.220 --> 00:16:29.879 So we were watching him the other day. 159 00:16:29.879 --> 00:16:30.700 We love music. 160 00:16:30.700 --> 00:16:32.220 We jam and everything. 161 00:16:32.220 --> 00:16:38.500 And so he played Ludwig's guitar. 162 00:16:38.500 --> 00:16:42.720 Well, he can play some guitar and can sing a bit. 163 00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:47.659 And so he was so in his own and so one of the string 164 00:16:47.659 --> 00:16:56.860 broke and so when you do that it's like packing something so it's to dole that's 165 00:16:56.860 --> 00:17:03.179 the name so then the name he was given was white don't know so if you were to 166 00:17:03.179 --> 00:17:08.180 translate that put into context for you to put into practice 167 00:17:08.180 --> 00:17:16.819 if it's a human being. So he managed to pluck us out of our comfort zone and bring us to 168 00:17:16.819 --> 00:17:26.359 the persons that we are. And so himself, donula is basically to pluck and to uproot something and bring it up to the 169 00:17:26.359 --> 00:17:33.279 surface and so that's the fitting and he can choose how one you know use or put 170 00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:40.819 into context for themselves and it's a difficult way of translating the word in 171 00:17:40.819 --> 00:17:47.039 the cause of to English in terms of what it means but there's the essence of it. 172 00:17:47.039 --> 00:17:50.559 Wai do nula. Beautiful. 173 00:17:50.559 --> 00:17:56.799 I really watched some YouTube videos in the beginning and I wrote down a lot of 174 00:17:57.440 --> 00:18:10.000 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. 175 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:18.000 But I can tell you that I got a name. It's a white ruler. 176 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:27.799 And it means like a person who unplugged something. So I had this naming ceremony on the 177 00:18:27.799 --> 00:18:38.720 Heritage Day that was interesting and I felt very honored also and it was like 178 00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:47.740 in the circle where I'm exhibiting now. So this is the place where all these cultural acts 179 00:18:47.740 --> 00:18:51.700 are taking place and where you sit together, also 180 00:18:51.700 --> 00:18:54.839 after works and also casual in a way. 181 00:18:54.839 --> 00:18:56.819 Why don't you? 182 00:18:56.819 --> 00:18:58.119 Why don't you? 183 00:18:58.119 --> 00:18:59.220 And yours? 184 00:18:59.220 --> 00:19:00.720 My choice. 185 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:02.119 What is it? 186 00:19:02.119 --> 00:19:03.519 Mine is? 187 00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:06.359 Yeah. It's advanced. 188 00:19:06.680 --> 00:19:09.380 It means advanced. 189 00:19:12.019 --> 00:19:13.160 It's the truth.