Strange Clay: Woody De Othello
‘Working with ceramics is something near and dear to my heart. It feeds my soul… it gives me purpose and it gives me space to express myself.’
One of 23 international artists whose works feature in the Hayward Gallery exhibition, Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art, Woody De Othello is a ceramicist and painter who lives and works in San Francisco. His ceramic work – the subject matter of which spans household objects, bodily features and the natural world – has exhibited at the San Jose Museum of Art and the 2022 Whitney Biennial, and can be found in the collections of museums including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
In this video interview the artist discusses a number of topics including the appeal of ceramics, both as an artistic medium and in terms of what it offers him as an artist; the breadth of influences in his work, which are increasingly diasporic and ancestral, taking him to explore the notion of Black life in Africa and what that looks like; and the metaphorical quantities of everyday objects.
‘I hope that when people look at my work there’s a little moment of tenderness and a little moment of feeling some deeper emotions, but also a moment of joy, and a moment to know that, you know, everything’s going to be all right’.
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