ORIGINS

BY MITCHELL GATSI, MELODY MILINGA

& KERSTIN BREHEM

The exhibition Origins brings together three ceramic artists—Melody Milinga, Mitchell Gatsi, and Kerstin Risbjerg Brehem—whose practices each trace a return to something elemental: the earth, the body, and shared experience.

For Melody Milinga, clay arrived as revelation. During a family trip to Germany in 2022, she encountered ancient pottery from 300 AD—fragile yet enduring objects that seemed to carry centuries of human stories within them. When she returned to Namibia, she

bought a bag of air-dry clay and began to sculpt, soon discovering a deep and intuitive connection to the medium.

Working with hand-building and coiling techniques, Milinga creates organic forms that are never glazed, allowing the rawness of the clay to remain visible and alive. Her surfaces, textured by scraping and grog, reflect the natural imperfections and rhythms of the

human body. Through her work, she seeks to honour womanhood and motherhood—to give form to the shared stories, strength, and tenderness of the feminine. In this exhibition, her focus turns to love as the most powerful force of creation: love as intimacy, compassion,

and humanity’s original bond invites viewers to reconnect with an often-forgotten tenderness.

Mitchell Gatsi also draws from deeply personal experience, shaping clay into a language of emotional resilience. From the first moment he held a lump of clay, he recognised it as a material capable of embodying both vulnerability and strength. His sculptures—often

small to medium in scale—are created through a combination ofpinching, coiling, and slab work. Clay’s flexibility and organic nature allow him to express the shifting balance between joy and struggle that defines the human journey.

Gatsi’s body of work for Origins pays tribute to the courage and perseverance found in single parenthood. His pieces celebrate those who carry the weight of nurturing and providing, who become both the structure and the heart of their families. Through his tactile

forms, he honours the emotional labour, quiet strength, and acts of love that sustain these everyday lives. His work stands as a testament to endurance and care.

Kerstin Risbjerg Brehem, a Danish-born ceramic artist living between Namibia and Cape Town, completes the trio with a practice that bridges continents and sensibilities. Her work reflects a dialogue between the simplicity of Scandinavian design and the raw, organic

energy of southern Africa’s landscapes. Drawing inspiration from seed pods, shells, and other botanical forms, Brehem’s latest series she explores cycles of growth, renewal, and belonging.

Her vessels—ranging from sculptural to functional—embody a quiet balance between form and emptiness, movement and stillness. Matte blacks and softly layered glazes evoke the desert’s shifting light or the ocean’s depths, mirroring the natural rhythms of her

environment. For Brehem, working with clay is a meditative act, a grounding conversation between hand and earth. “Clay has a memory of warmth and belonging,” she reflects. “Through shaping, drying, and firing, it slowly becomes alive with meaning.”

In the hands of these three artists, clay becomes a language and a medium to connect. Origins opens at The Project Room on 7 November and will be on show until 29 November 2O25.