Art is the moulder’s hands

“Clay can be dirt in the wrong hands, but clay can be art in the right hands,” said Lupita Nyong’o.

Morake Matjie may be familiar to residents of Ruimsig as the artist who displays his clay sculptures along Hendrik Potgieter Road.

Morake came to Johannesburg from Graskop 21 years ago to find work, and when his aspirations did not pan out, he turned to art. “I wanted to work with clay because the finished products looked easy enough for me to take up the skill,” he began. “I was training in Katlehong at the time; they had an art centre. From there I worked as an assistant at Liebermann Pottery in Auckland Park and that’s where I excelled at working with clay and sculpting, particularly life-sized sculptors.”

It wasn’t long before that he was moulding his own creations and working for himself. He has been part of Artist Under The Sun at Zoo Lake; he has also been a member of the Watercolour Society of South Africa in Fourways. He has displayed at the IDC in Sandton, at OR Tambo International Airport and numerous art galleries in Asia.

“I ended up here because I struggled to transport the life-size works. Here people can see them and what one can do with clay. It’s not just China that can produce these kinds of products using clay; we as local artists are also capable. In other places I would only display the smaller pieces because I can travel with them.”

He said displaying at the side of the road has helped because he gets all kinds of customers. “I don’t have Facebook and all these other media. People have said they would help me set up a social media presence but it never worked out. Conflicts come up and then my business stops. Here anyone can find me and they can see my work.”

To mould and sculpt a life-size piece takes Morake a month. “I could take 20 days to make it but the days after that are crucial because it needs time to dry properly. It takes a long time to dry. If it hasn’t dried properly and I put it in the oven it will burst.”

Morake pays exceptional attention to detail in his work. Clearly a perfectionist, he took his time fixing up a clay teddy bear that had broken during transportation while we spoke. He said learning to create life-size sculptures did not take him that long because even in his childhood, he played with clay. Children in rural areas often use clay and other natural materials to make their own toys. For him, the ability was always there.

He shared that he comes from an artistic family; his uncle used to create pieces with clay as well and still does to this day. “I would watch him work and I wanted to be like him. I wanted to imitate his work and even surpass him. That’s what pushed me to do life-sized sculptures because he can’t do them. So I think I have surpassed him,” he said with a smile.

Unfortunately as with every business, Morake faces his share of challenges. He opened up that the biggest problem they have is from the police who constantly harass and even break their stock. He also said they regularly have to fight off criminals in the night. “They’ll try to jump this wall and we will try to stop them. We’ve fought with a lot of them. I have been hit with a hammer on the head.” He pointed to the scar. “Last month my brother got shot. The residents here think we are causing the issues but if we should leave, I am certain they would be getting troubled every night. That’s our biggest problem because we sleep here to guard the sculptures.”