
Helene Love-Allotey
Head of Department
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Head of Department
Provenance
Acquired directly from the Abuja Pottery Training Centre;
A private collection.
Glazed both inside and out, this casserole dish consists of a circular bowl with lug handles, a domed lid and central knob. Decorated on the outer surface of the lid with geometric shapes arranged around the circumference of the lid pointing to the central knob. This work bares the worn yet still legible stamp 'KU' on the under side on the bowl's base, identifying it as the work of Kande Ushafa.
The sun pattern formulated from the altering lentoid shapes and wavy lines on the lid of the work is consistent with Ushafa's aesthetic practice. Frequently using this design on her bowls and dishes, this is a prime example of the potter's work. Joining The Abuja Pottery Training Centre in 1963 as a traditional and one of the only female potters, Kande Ushafa refined her stylised works that she had previously made independently in her village, Ushafa, for the local community and her family.
Bibliography
Tanya Harrod, The Last Sane Man, Michael Cardew, Modern Pots, Colonialism and the Counterculture, (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 294.
John Edgeler, Michael Cardew and stoneware, continuity and change, (Winchcombe: Cotswolds living Publications, 2008)