Files
Abstract
Ceramics that are part of this ongoing and expanding tradition range from functional beer vessels made for brewing, drinking and serving indigenous utshwala beer in rural and urban homesteads to studio ceramic pieces made for international art galleries. Ironically both Naia and Mbonambi had first attracted attention by breaking with the norms of tradition to design innovative vessels to cater for a growing local market in tourist art.4 At the time, the predominantly white art world was searching for exemplars of what was termed 'a Zulu vision in art'.5 An exhibition of the same name, The Zulu Vision in Art was held in 1988 at one of the earliest and continuous national platforms in South Africa for the acknowledgement of cultural exemplars in theatre, music and the plastic arts: the Grahamstown National Festival of the Arts.