My intentions with developing an extended body of work under the title iThongo (Ancestral Dreamscape) is to highlight a gathering of dreams – seated in the soul, held by the spirits of our ancestors. Symbols are visual tools harnessed to impart more effectively meanings within messages – code, if you will – that aid stories. The language of dreams is symbolic and therefore realised as uYalezo, messages from our ancestral spirits.
These stools, taking inspiration from both memories and African artefacts, are low, close to the earth, the ground revered as an ancient portal for our ancestral communion.
Andile Dyalvane is one of South Africa’s foremost ceramic artists. Guided by a deep spiritual connection to his Xhosa ancestors, Dyalvane’s complex, large-scale ceramic artworks are a metaphorical vessel through which he seeks to honour his cultural traditions and share his journey of healing.