Clementina van der Walt is a well-known South African studio potter, based in Cape Town. In the past four decades, she has lectured, run a production studio and held many one-person shows. Her work is represented in several South African national and international collections.
Together with her partner Albie Bailey, they run Clementina Ceramics Studio and a separate store in Woodstock Cape Town, South Africa. They also run a small Kraaldoring Studio and Gallery outside Calitzdorp in the Klein Karoo.
Her intention is to seek the sacred in the ordinary. She believes that in the 21st century, we are increasingly being catapulted into the cyber age of information overload. Making contemplative and utilitarian objects by hand forms a necessary antidote. The ceramic discipline, with cultural and historical links to rituals of everyday life, encompasses society, religion and philosophy. The archetypal significance of the home, as a point where our spiritual and earthy lives interconnect is where she has attempted to explore these ideas.
Her aesthetic inspiration is drawn from the patterns, colours and textures in the urban African and rural landscapes. She applies techniques of press moulding, casting and throwing and uses earthenware clays, slips and underglazes.
