Dame Magdalene Odundo’s ceramic vessels often feature the bulbous forms and burnished surfaces found in Untitled #11. Handbuilt from successive coils of terracotta clay, Odundo rubbed it with stones to achieve a smooth texture, and fired it multiple times to yield the silky black and orange surface. The ceramic vessel form has often been described using bodily analogies, and Odundo’s work has frequently been compared to the female body, the preeminent vessel of life. Her inspiration for the trumpet-shaped neck of Untitled #11 has been linked to the elongated female heads and flaring hairstyles of the Mangbetu people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has formal similarities as well to the work of her predecessor Lucie Rie, a British ceramic artist who also extensively explored the vessel form. Odundo works almost exclusively in closed vessel forms such as this one. “The vessel is present from birth to death,” she explains. “We’re brought in through a vessel and leave in a vessel. I think that’s why the idea of embodiment, and representing an individual, has also been so poignant when thinking about and appreciating the pot as a universal object.”
Over a long career, Odundo has found vital sources of inspiration in museums. As a student, visits to the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge, England, to see classical Greek pottery and objects from the ancient Kerma civilization were transformative. She also had decisive learning experiences with living ceramists, including studying for three months with Nigerian potter Ladi Kwali, who taught her how to coil-build a pot (when the prevailing technique was wheel-throwing). She had a pivotal visit in the United States with the Pueblo potter Maria Martinez, whose burnishing and firing techniques would influence her own.
Bobbye Tigerman
2024
