VESSELS WITH DISTINCT SURFACE FINISH FROM BURNING PLANT-BASED RESIN
[1,2,8-10]: VESSELS WITH DISTINCT SURFACE FINISH FROM BURNING PLANT-BASED RESIN
[3-5]: A Congolese potter forms a vessel. The vessels are taken out of the fire, plunged in a hot vegetable resin, and displayed to show a marbled pattern, leftover from the burnt vegetable matter
[6,7]: Close up view of the marbled surface finish
From: Bakongo culture, Democratic Republic of the Congo 🇨🇩Source [1,2,8-10]: @britishmuseum
Source [3-5]: “The Hands of the Potter: Tombo Monyanga, Congo, Central Africa, November 1985.” Film on YouTube by @smithsonian_africanart
Source [6,7]: @wikimedia.commons
Source notes [1,2,8-10]: “”This pot of a distinctive yellow clay and the striking and unusual decoration is achieved by splashing the surface with a very thick, resinous, vegetable decoction while it is still hot from baking. The vegetable matter boils off rapidly, leaving an effect almost of wood grain. It is a technique used by a number of peoples around the mouth of the River Zaire” - T. Phillips (ed.), Africa, the art of a continent (London, Royal Academy, 1995) pp:255”
Source notes [3-5]: “The film documents the making of three pots by hand. It follows the work of the woman potter from the beginning of shaping the clay to the baking and cooling process. The pots are hand spun on a rock and coiled built and then fired in an open stack of twits and logs. The hot pots are plunged into bowls of liquid. The heat of the pot causes the liquid to boil leaving the surface with wavy pattern”
Source notes [6,7]: “Jar, Kongo people, Congo, late 1800s, clay, plant resin - National Museum of Natural History, United States”
Observations: design by responding to nature (process-based ornamentation), simplicity, continuing a design language, formal harmony, ergonomics (form intuits use and handling), material intelligence, material awareness, material as beauty.
