SONGS OF HOME

Songs of Home is a hand-built ceramic vessel that weaves together two landscapes and two lifetimes.

Around the outside of the vessel, magpies and hoopoes sing in chorus – a meeting of voices from Australia and South Africa. Inside, thin slabs of black clay, marked and brushed with rich orange slip, echo the warmth and depth of memory. Behind the birds, gum leaves form a quiet backdrop, a flora shared by both countries – a subtle thread of belonging.

I was born in South Africa and immigrated to Australia at 14. The sounds of the natural world are my deepest language. Where hoopoes once called to me, now magpies sing. This vessel holds that layered story – of migration, memory and the enduring music of home.

White and black midfire clay with stained paperclay slip, oxide washes and splashes of clear glaze, 35 × 25cm