Zanna Markillie

This piece was the beginning of a body of work and creative process, which has carried on until the end of the academic year.

I learnt how to make clay coil pots from a Youtube video of an African Woman making clay pots. She lives in the Mnweni area in the Drakensbery Mountains, South Africa. She was over 100 years old and people travelled for miles to buy her pots. I was deeply inspired and touched by watching her make and re-enacted her body postion and technique. The sculpture legs are a replica of my legs sitting in the position of the African woman. I wanted to give solid form to  this grounded position to represent the earth connection I felt whilst making of pots. To me this felt like a reflection of the Yin Yang cycle, where the polar opposites support and sustain the other. The grounded/still legs supported the active/creative movement of my arms and hands.

I started to film myself making clay pots with a GoPro cameras strapped to my head and wrists and finally from inside the pot. I edited 4 films and decided that the last film with footage only from the inside of the pot was the most potent film. The making as viewed from the inside feels womb-like and internal, and the hands feels both maternal and paternal. The creative process becomes a tender and embodied experience felt through the film, and hints at old greek myths of the making of man from clay.