Andile Dyalvane

Last night, after a long while of not spending time with our own sister, who is us (since we grew up amongst brothers), this gift to hear our own heart clearly was set-up in the manner we like, at home. Improve flows and harmonizing from eternal timespace. At the same time, our sister @mariamccloy was transitioning🌌♾️🔥. During this event (2nd slide) in March this year hosted by @makingit_za and partners, Maria on PR and DJ, we got to dance off the stretch of the new years intergration, to her epic signature South African sonic offering. She then invited us to the VVIP lounge at the @mjffranschhoek jazz festival always affirming "You're my people!" . She shared with us an intense matter of heart moment, at morning coffee, before this night of Dj-ing and every moment we got to affirm her at the Jazz Fest was deeply important. Her hard work, space sharing and making for family, creative community and cultural archival activism will forever remain in our DNA as her people. As a producer, craft curator and cultural icon in her own right, she raised many of us. For her, last night's songs we give - they accompany her on her journey across ancestral rivers, they equipped her with surety that what must heal in her absence, will. Your sisters know your heart deeply, true matriarch spirit, bless for being strong for them and us all. Your spiritual gains are greater than your physical losses albeit hard in this dimension to experience, your name will live on, you chose well the spirit you want to be in this world. Peace is yours as we release (we were not ready), even so, we sing for you now. May healing cloak your family and all of us beautiful beautiful soul. Camagu! KaiGanGans ♾️ 🔥

uMama (Mother) Central to the organization of family and home, mothers bring a wealth of knowledge gained from their own maternal and social learnings. The strength and pride of family resides with her capacity to harness all efforts from members of the family clan and the community. She brings success and peace to proceedings undertaken for various ritualistic, traditional or ceremonial purposes and is therefore seen as the knowledge keeper and heart of the home. Her efforts are always rewarded, even more so if she played a similar contributing or participatory role for other mothers and women in her family and community. The raising of her children, often a communal effort, allows her to partake in this exchange of services to others. Camagu! Mama, Nozala, Ndlezana, sikhukhukazi, mbomodo.

Rooted in the language of scarification — a practice held across many African cultures, including our own Xhosa heritage — this collection reflects a deeper dialogue of identity, memory, and belonging. Each mark carries meaning, echoing traditions of adornment, storytelling, and the body as a site of history. A selection of works from this collection is currently available to view on our website. #ImisoCeramics #AfricanCeramics #ContemporaryCeramics #XhosaHeritage #AfricanArt

Brilliant work by: @andiledyalvane via @southernguildgallery

An evening of nourishment, connection, and shared presence — where food became a vessel for gathering, warmth, and exchange. Grateful to contribute to a space where love, intention, and community could meet around the circle. Love in South Africa 2026. #Masipheke #LoveInSouthAfrica #ImisoCeramics #CapeTownExperiences #FoodAsCulture #Gathering

Across many African Indigenous traditions, clay is far more than earth beneath our feet. It is a living material that carries memory, spirit, and the story of creation itself. For generations, clay has been used to shape vessels that hold water, food, and sacred brews—objects that sustain both body and community. Yet its significance extends far beyond craft. In many cultural practices, clay is also used on the body during rituals of healing, purification, and ancestral connection. The act of touching clay becomes an act of remembering that we come from the earth and will one day return to it. Within traditions connected to the work of Izangoma, different clays may be applied during ceremonies as symbols of grounding, protection, and spiritual alignment. The body becomes a living canvas, marked with the language of the land. Clay also carries the knowledge of those who came before us. Every pot, vessel, or fragment holds traces of the hands that shaped it—echoes of technique, culture, and worldview passed through generations. In a fast-moving digital world, clay reminds us of something essential: that creation begins with the earth itself. To shape clay is to slow down, to listen, and to participate in a cycle much older than any of us. Perhaps that is why this humble material continues to endure—because within it lies a profound truth: we are, quite literally, shaped by the earth. #claygulgong2026

In 2018, we met Clay Gulgong energy in rural New South Wales Australia hosted by @claygulgong_mansfieldceramics . We participated as a Master in working with Clay, located atop a hill called ‘Red Hill’ where the earth was assaulted for self-induced toxic vanities around gold. So much was felt, said and shared between the organizers and ourselves back then. A shift initialized. Mutual realizations shared from the space of corrective action led us to our collective offering eight years later. This past Clay Gulgong 2026 (ode to ‘Bad Bunny’ love wins!) the reckoning came through the work of deep acknowledgment for the earth, we all are made of HER, returning to HER. What we choose not to OR to give our spiritual consent to - we know for us to heal, the land must heal. We see clearly our suffering - the pathology of lies we’ve been told, have told and told to ourselves. Together we created the opportunity to truth talk, breathe, move, chant and create toward collective healing from our ignorance and shame-hands to Mother Earth and Sky. This is how we cleanse. We came back from eating our own prayer dust, far more connected to one another, seeing clearly that our earth, that clay and land connections are spirited links to our life’s purpose. We ALL deserve to be rooted in our purpose, feel cleansed by our earthly experiences and to be clear in our pure heart directed thoughts. These are the essential teachings of clay - to REMEMBER. Deep appreciation for ALL who showed up to do the work on all fronts both SEEN and UNSEEN. Giving and receiving can happen within the same vessel. Makwande Livumile Camagu! #firstnations #clay #healing hearts #earth #australia @claygulgong_mansfieldceramics @imisoceramics @nkuthazo_alexis_dyalvane @nkosenathikoela @sisonkepapu @the_dancing_herbalist @katrina.bodey_art @mamools_

This World Earth Day, we’re reflecting on the deep and instinctive ways artists connect to the world around them 🌍 Across our programmes, many of the artists we’ve worked with draw directly from their environments — using found objects, natural clay, organic materials, and forms shaped by landscape and memory. These aren’t just aesthetic choices, but acts of connection: to land, to history, to home. In their hands, materials carry meaning. Earth becomes archive, texture becomes story, and nature becomes a living collaborator in the work. There’s something powerful in this closeness — an attentiveness to place that feels both intimate and expansive. It’s what makes these practices so distinct, so rooted, and so deeply personal. Today is a reminder that the relationship between creativity and the natural world isn’t separate — it’s intertwined. And through these artists, we’re invited to see, feel and understand that connection more closely. Pictures: 1. @andiledyalvane in his studio working with clay. 2. @gerald.chukwuma in his studio surrounded by his works. 3. @nabulime_lilian_sculptor in her studio working on a sculpture made from a fallen tree 4. @lindoufs working on a piece in his studio. 5. @souadabdelrasoul work entitled “Roots without Land” acrylic on canvas 2018 6. @ermiasekubestudio in his studio working on a canvas. #WorldEarthDay #EarthDay #ContemporaryArt #AfricanArt #DiasporaArt SustainableArt ArtAndNature AlmasArtFoundation

Clay Gulgong 2026 done and dusted, we express gratitude to the spirit of the first nations who walked before us and the spirt of the elders that we walk with @sisonke Papu, @nkuthazo_alexis_dyalvane @nkosenathikoela and @cebo Zuma. Thank you for gift of song lines from Gulgong.

What a honour to activate @tortus ‘s vessel to an musical instrument. Here is to many more ceremonies that will bring healing through clay and sound. Camagu @claygulgong_mansfieldceramics 2026

Re-calibration through a sonic frequency of isitolo-tolo. Mouth harp. Umphefumlo kukuphila , ingoma kakuphila. Makukhanye! Camagu.

In this piece for Ceramics Now, writer Monica Monaia reflects on Andile Dyalvane’s recent solo exhibition ‘iNgqweji’ at Southern Guild Cape Town (22 November 2025 – 29 January 2026). ‘Ceramics as Living Presence: Experiencing Andile Dyalvane’s iNgqweji’ considers how Dyalvane’s work moves beyond objecthood, positioning clay as a living, relational force shaped by land, ancestry, and ritual. Through sound, collaboration, and ceremonial activation, ‘iNgqweji’ becomes an embodied experience: inviting viewers into a deeper sensory engagement with memory, spirituality, and connection. Read the full article at the link in our bio (under NEWS) @ceramicsnow @andiledyalvane Image captions (L–R): Andile Dyalvane, ‘Intlak’omga’ (2025) and ‘Intsholo’ (2025). Both courtesy Lea Crafford/Southern Guild; ‘iNgqweji’ Sketch (2025). Courtesy Hlalanathi Radebe #SouthernGuildCapeTown #CeramicsNow #AndileDyalvane #iNgqweji #SoloExhibition