Invest: Andile Dyalvane on storytelling through art

begins with a line through which Andile Dyalvane links past and future. Here, he explains how gratitude (‘camagu’, in isixhosa) informs his work.

GQ: How did your journey as an artist begin?

Andile Dyalvane: Being raised in the rural Eastern Cape, my journey toward art may have subliminally been influenced by elder brothers and their creative outlets – reggae music and interests in painting. I’d sketch through lessons at primary school, and kids would commission me to redraw diagrams of creatures for biology and so on. When I arrived in Cape Town, a friend spotted me sketching, and he guided me to the College of Cape Town’s Gugulethu Campus to study art. I was blown away during excursions to museums, galleries and studios in the city. My majors were ceramics and graphic design, and I went on to work at The Potter’s Workshop. I was able to attend a five-week residency exchange in Denmark and a scholarship to study ceramics at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. I returned to the Cape to rent a corner at The Potter’s Workshop. With some of my varsity peers, we founded Imiso Ceramics Gallery in 2006.

‘Clay heals and brings together healing practices with energies, which help to guide the spirit toward essential truths’

GQ: How do you integrate your history and heritage into your work?

AD: At first, I needed to work another studio’s aesthetic out of my system, and a new signature needed to emerge from within. A collaborative project with various ceramists to create tealight vessels ignited my ‘Scarified Collection’ into existence because the technique of slicing through the clay to release light resonated strongly with our ritualistic practice of scarifying the flesh for the purposes of clan and healing cultural codes. Once you acknowledge the call to relay messages through creativity, discipline is essential. ‘Imiso’ is derivative of ‘ngomso’ in isixhosa meaning ‘tomorrow’; our ethos recognises that we create today for greater manifestations for future generations.

GQ: Tell us about “camyaoguur”n, ethwebcmenwtriasl themreeaodf yo–uarrweoyroku.? Visit bmw.co.za/ anywhere