Andile Dyalvane
OoJola I Clan Series, 2016
Sagaponack
Andile Dyalvane was born in 1978 on a cattle farm in Ngobozana, a small village in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. He currently lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa.
Dyalvane’s work with clay or “umhlaba” (mother earth) reinforces an innate human connection to soil, a foundational connection that he made while learning to farm as a child. Drawing equally upon his Xhosa heritage and his contemporary urban milieu, Dyalvane crafts earthy and elegant ceramic works. As he describes: “My current inspirations are drawn from my immediate environment, inner city urban life, and its relation to where I come from.”
Melding images and experiences gleaned from his rural upbringing and his urban adulthood, he produces vessels, platters, and home furnishings covered with abstract designs and human figures. Every color and mark on his skillfully crafted pieces has meaning. His “Scarified” collection, for example, is inspired by the traditional Xhosa practice of scarification (ukuqatshulwa). Treating clay like skin, Dyalvane incises the surfaces of the vessels in this collection with lines and patterned marks, evoking and celebrating the beauty of the patterned bodies of his youth.
Articles:
Andile Dyalvane draws on Xhosa Heritage for iThongo seating collection.