When one gets close to the statuesque ceramic wedding dress for which Helena de Waal (37) was awarded the title of Runner-up of the 2016 Phatshoane Henney New Breed Art Competition, it is rather difficult to fathom how she managed to assemble this almost 1,5 metres tall creation.

Helena explains that she knows logically it would have made more sense to create it from thin, white porcelain, but she specifically wanted to challenge her medium and rather opted to make it from white, pottery clay. “Not knowing for sure that it would work, I first built the framework underneath, and then for days on end thinly rolled out the clay, cutting out each individual piece as dictated by my pattern and then impressing a unique texture onto each. My kiln was not large enough to fire the dress in assembled form, compelling me to fire all the separate pieces at the same time to ensure they baked and shrank at the same temperature. All this took me about two months. Only after firing could I get to work on carefully assembling the many fragile pieces into its completed form.”

Entitled ‘Name changing object,’ the ceramic dress has a strong conceptual basis referring to the social system regulating the prescribed roles women and men are expected to adhere to when married. The expectation that a woman has to change her surname once married, irked her especially. “To me it felt as if a woman has to change her name and become an entirely different person in order to be at her husband’s service. The woman becomes his possession and an object he can use as and when it suits him. So in a way it’s as if a woman puts on this object that’s a wedding dress to become a whole new person,” she remarks.However the dress has not reached the end of its life cycle yet. In the near future she plans to place this magnificent dress in an outside garden, exposing it to the natural elements in order to test its fragility. “That way it becomes symbolic of marriage that also gets tested by the ‘elements.’ The focus will shift away from the prescribed societal roles to the marital relationship travelling through seasonal cycles, through which it either grows and strengthens, or deteriorates and finally perishes. Accordingly the name of the artwork will change to ‘Name changing object: Perpetual motion.’

She finally aims to document the process for an entire year by photographing the dress from the same angle, on the same date and time each month. The resultant photographic documentation will eventually form part of a future exhibition entitled ‘Perpetual moments.’ 
Helena, born and bred in Bloemfontein, reflects that since starting her art studies in 1998 and first touching clay that same year, she simply knew that was what she was meant to do for the rest of her life. “Clay is the medium through which I express myself best, allowing me to illustrate the fragility of the human condition. I can’t create art if I can’t identify with the art work. If I do, it’ll be false and dead like empty words.” 

She is especially thankful for the exposure last year’s New Breed Art Competition brought her. “The marketing of the competition was excellent, and never before has a work of mine received such wide exposure.” 

Looking ahead at 2017, she shares her fascinating plans to establish the bee farming she took over from her father since his health no longer allowed him to continue with it. Not only has she set out to create bee collector and honey products under the ‘BeeBrave’ trademark, but she expects it’ll have an influence on her art too. This, along with her lecturing position at Motheo TVet College, serves as her bread and butter – which only leaves after hours and holidays to practise her art. “Although I would love to work with clay from morning till night, not being a full time artist allows me to fully enjoy my art and not depending on it as my main source of income.”