In the past decade OKHA has emerged as one of the most stylish and innovative interior brands with exclusive and contemporary furniture and accessories, providing a sought after signature offering. OKHA has set a new standard in design and continues to pioneer African luxury across a wide range of unique furniture and decor products. Exclusive to OKHA, are the works of ceramicist Ian Garrett. Here is our exclusive interview with the talented artist.
When did you become interested in ceramics?
I started pottery classes at school at the age of ten. While also still at school, I became interested in archaeology and used to look for ancient pot-sherds in the beach middens near my home in the Eastern Cape. This soon led to experiments trying to fire my own “ancient” pots in the backyard at home. Later on I studied fine art and then specialised with a masters degree in ceramics at the University of KZN, where I finally got to encounter living traditions of the type of pots that had always interested me.
What inspires you?
I try to make beautiful, expressive objects that are worth looking at, using the most time-honoured methods of working with clay.
Tell us a bit about your pieces, what makes each one unique?
Each pot is built up with coils of clay that are smoothed together and then scraped thin as they dry. This gives them a slight unevenness and almost imperceptible organic quality revealing that they are entirely made by hand. I use the serrated edge of a mussel shell to impress fine concentric lines into the clay, one-by-one, building up dense areas of texture. The remaining spaces are burnished or polished with smooth pebbles, a laborious process that takes many hours to complete for each pot. The finished pieces are fired in a bon-fire of aloe-leaves, tree bark or cow-dung to give a smoked, silvery-black colour.
What are your thoughts on the future of South African design?
There is an enormous amount of originality and creativity in South African design at the moment, but we also have an incredibly rich visual heritage of African craft and design to draw on. This combination creates a unique style that is still only starting to be discovered and understood elsewhere in the world.
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