Ngozi-Omeje Ezema (b. 1979, Nsukka, Nigeria) creates sculptural installations composed of hundreds of suspended terracotta fragments that coalesce into amorphous vessel-like forms. Ezema’s practice reconsiders inherited traditions of pottery, transforming the vessel from an object historically tied to domestic and utilitarian function into a site symbolizing memory, embodiment, and human experience.

Ezema works with fire clay and coal-shell excavated from the Iva Valley coal mines in Enugu, incorporating materials embedded with the industrial and environmental histories of southeastern Nigeria. Individual ceramic elements are connected with translucent fishing wire and suspended as free-floating or wall-mounted installations that appear at once fragile and monumental. Her terracotta fragments are fired at high temperatures using reduction firing techniques, producing surfaces marked by tonal variation. Drawing on the forms of vessels, leaves, and the material presence of the earth itself, Ezema explores the body as a physical and symbolic container. In pottery, vessels have traditionally been described with personifying terms to identify their anatomy, such as mouth, neck, shoulder, belly, or foot. Informed by biblical conceptions of human beings as vessels, Ezema extends these metaphors as symbols of spiritual containment. 

Source: Ko Artspace website