Twelve ceramic potters made individual works for NEST, an exhibition at Henry George Gallery on May 2018. On six porcelain pots, through circular drawings, I explored a world set on earth as a nest where nestlings live. I made these pots intuitively and would like to return to the thoughts that inspired them and understand its meaning.

The shape of choice 

A sleepy creature wakes up while a little tit is suspended midair in a triangular choice, with one foot was on a kappertjie, the other on a agt-dae-genees and a red trumpet waiting underneath. 

The Love Letter

Johannes Vermeer made a painting called -The Love Letter, 1666. I had it in mind when I made this drawing of young girl receiving a Whats App from her lover, not written in words but as a picture emoji of a single green apple. She understands its content in its context as she considers the offer of one more apple.

Strangely, I had sketched her lover as a yellow canary competing with a swallow for her attention.

The equation

In the space between the pelican and the bittern an iteration of birds are arguing about who started the noise. In circles they argue to resolve an unsolvable equation.

The Stranger

We found a black oystercatcher in a tangle of lines on our beach. My daughter approached it gently and held the spiky bird while my husband and I cut it loose from its panic and pain. Limping back towards the pull of the sea, it was no longer a stranger to us as it continued its search for its oyster and pearl.

The Pelican and the Bittern,

The four birds in the prophesy by the prophet Isaiah in the bible shocked me.

The prophesy was about a day when the fury of the Lord God would be turned upon all nations because they had turned away from him, choosing to trust their own efforts instead of the Lord who is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. In that day the earth will be desolate. Streams will be turned to pitch, dust to brimstone, the land shall be burnt and become impenetrable. From one generation to the next it shall lie waste and just like water can’t pass through pitch no one would be able to pass through it, but the pelican and the bittern shall possess it and the owl and the raven shall live in it. A line of confusion shall be stretched and stones of emptiness shall be upon it. (Isaiah 34: 8-15) 

Such words slay our souls naked like desolate landscapes.

I tried to make sense of the Pelican metaphor. Its habit is to scoop its catch of fish into its large beak and then to spit it out on dry land where all kinds of creatures swoop down to devour it. It reminded me of what the Spirit said to the church of Laodicea – I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot, therefore I will spit you out of my mouth for you do not know that you are wretched, poor, naked and miserable’  ~Rev 3:15-18.  The early Christians identified with the fish symbol. On dry land, without water, they would be prey. 

When I saw a bittern for the first time, it reminded me of a striped fish. I learned that it was famous for the stance it takes when under threat – standing completely still with eyes towards heaven as if it was waiting for God to help. Two birds, two realities

The Mourning Owl and the Weeping Dragon,

In Isaiah’s prophesy (which is explored above) the pelican and the bittern may each present two different realities. But what about the other two birds, the owl and the dusky raven who also inhabit that desolate landscape. 

I sketched them. The owl looked like a young girl. I had to find out more.

I found her in Micah’s prophesy (Mic 1). She was mourning in the company of a weeping dragon. She was from Samaria, the northern kingdom of Israel. She was in covenant with her Lord but she had turned away from his holiness and righteousness and had hired herself out as a kind of prostitute. The Lord said, I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons and a mourning as the owls for her wound has become incurable. 1) Between 735 BC to 700 BC, the king of Assyria conquered the northern kingdom and Israel was sent as captives to Babylon.  2)

The Lord was wailing and He was making a wailing and a mourning. I sketched the young girl,  in mourning, exiled to the nations.

I sketched her companion – the weeping dragon, weighed down by his loss of wealth.

Isaiah then heard the word of God –

‘The Lord, The Holy One of Israel, the creator of Israel, your King says – I make a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters. Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing that shall spring forth. I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. The animals of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, as a drink to my people, my chosen whom I have formed for myself and they shall praise me’. 3)

I then sketched the Lord remembering us, by bringing us salvation, by giving us his Son who is the visible image of God. The Kingdom of Jesus Christ then breaks forth into the world like a strong horse. And the Holy Spirit is poured out on us.

Bibliography

1. Micah 1:8-9 (KJV)

2. https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/from-bethlehem-in-the-majesty-of-the-name-of-the-lord

3. Isaiah 43:19-21 (KJV)

In Conclusion:

All these pots explore aspects of choice – and then the realisation that God is sovereign above all. His sovereign will shall stand.