"A brief history of and guide to contemporary Zulu pottery"--Back cover

When Zulu women potters innovate or move to a more urban setting, they are asked why they have abandoned tradition. Yet when they continue to follow convention or choose to stay in rural areas, art historians speak of their work as unchanging symbols of the past. Burnished rejects both stereotypes, giving agency back to the artists. Featuring 90 beautiful color images, Burnished engages directly with specific vessels and artists and fractures assumptions that Zulu ceramicists are insulated from rural transformation and urban realities. Elizabeth Perrill shares the fascinating stories of women potters and the ceramic beer pots they create--their aesthetics, audiences, production, and artistic lives. Simultaneously, Perrill documents the manner in which ceramic arts, and at times the artists themselves, capitalize upon bucolic stereotypes of rural womanhood, are constrained by artistic methods, or chafe against definitions of what qualifies as a Zulu pot. By revealing how White South Africa and global art gatekeepers have continually twisted the designation of Zulu ceramics before, during, and after apartheid, Burnished provides an engaging look at the entrepreneurial artistry of Black women who are often erased from historical records.

"This publication offers enthusiasts and collectors a glimpse into the studios of thirty important South African artists, born between 1941 and 1998, revealing the richness of both contemporary clay and ceramic tradition within South African art. This book is the fruit of countless conversations with each featured artist including Hylton Nel, Belinda Blignaut, Jabulile Nala, Ian Garrett, Andile Dyalvane, Katherine Glenday, Zizipho Poswa, Madoda Fani, Marlene Steyn, Hennie Meyer, Astrid Dahl, Chuma Maweni and Ruan Hoffmann amongst others."--Provided by publisher.

"Contemporary African Design offers a refreshing challenge to rigid perceptions of what African design looks like. Focusing primarily on interior decoration, the book presents fifty designers, artisans, and cooperatives based on the continent or part of the diaspora who are creating sophisticated and innovative products and interiors." --Publisher.

Published to accompany the exhibition "Shattering Perspectives: A Teaching Collection of African Ceramics," this is a collaborative, student generated project exploring ceramic arts from across the African continent through vessels and objects from the permanent collection of the Gregory Allicar Museum at Colorado State University.The exhibition and catalogue features 141 objects by artists from 57 cultures, representing 19 countries across present day Africa. Shattering Perspectives takes a unique approach to discussing African ceramics through the lens of a teaching collection and was conceived by Colorado State University students enrolled in an art history seminar course in Spring 2020. The students, who also served as co-curators, authors, and exhibition designers, explored the politics and poetics of museum display while delving into the methods, functions, and symbolism surrounding pottery, as well as the roles of ceramic artists across the African continent. The result is a dynamic exhibition and publication that presents unique viewpoints on approaching and discussing these fascinating objects through hands-on engagements and theoretical dialog.The project is organized around the themes of art v. artifact, misconceptions about the "unknown" African artist, pot making techniques across the continent, and visual expressions of identity. These perspectives present viewers with insights on working with a teaching collection and the resulting dialog that develops through encounters with art objects and critical texts.