Sacred sculpture rituals of artist Angelique Scott

Oct 26, 2023

Our lives are sacred. The paths we tread and the choices we make are interwoven with the destinies of those we descend from and serendipitous strangers. We are constantly in a state of becoming. In our lifetime, we will carry and bear witness to the birth and transcendence of many versions of ourselves. How much time do we allow ourselves to sit in a reflective space to glean what our physical and spiritual vessels need? What practices, prayers, rituals or adornments are we dedicated to offering to replenish our vessels? What perspectives or patterns are we ready to release?

Sculptural ceramicist and educator Angelique Scott engages clay and iconic motifs from ancient ceramic artifacts to query the valuation of Black bodies, Black histories and Black adornment rituals. Wellness is at the foundation and heart of Scott's practice. In her latest exhibition curated by Rhea Beckett, "Well Being: Rituals for Sacred Life," which has an opening reception tonight and will be on view through Feb. 3 at the Black Artist Research Space (BARS). Scott showcases over 30 ceramic, fiber and indigo textiles that illuminate the sacredness of Black life.

"[Clay] is what I feel most connected to when I think about working with land and cultural materials," Scott said. "I think that I always wanted to highlight my personal experience through my work, like most artists, but I wanted to do it in a way where other Black people could feel seen, whether that's in galleries or museums or just in the work itself. And for a long time, I was only getting exposed to one version of that, which usually came through trauma or protests."

Scott is a seeker. By placing her hands in clay and creating forms that elicit ancient processes, iconography and ornamentation, while also implying contemporary adornment traditions expressed in the intimacy of Black women's domestic spaces, she is refashioning and envisioning the self as myriad iterations of sacred vessels. In doing so, Scott channels what art historians Leslie King Hammond and Lowery Stokes Sims have termed "the psychic and physical space that is known as ‘Africa’ in the world today."

Sculptor Angelique Scott debuts her show on Friday the 13th entitled, Well Being: Rituals for a Sacred Life, at the black artist research space in Baltimore, Md., January 12, 2023. (Paul Newson/Paul Newson)

The work is unabashedly sacral; sacred feminine-inspired ceramics and textiles are charged and activated by an intentional provocation of spiritual transformation and aligned with the achievements of other Black artisans in America and across the African diaspora.

"As I continued matriculating through my practice of working with play and craft, and then up until college, I think I was in a very white space with a very white institution, and I think the way my work came out was through protests, struggle and yelling," Scott shared. "It ended up being really detrimental at the time, but I think it brought me to this space where I found myself post-college, going back to what brings me joy. So I started thinking about what are my artifacts and objects of value I find in my family, and a lot of Black homes, and what value looks like for us as Black women. I started thinking about lineage, ancestry, how do we pass down the sense of worthiness about our assets and valuables. It led me to this place of really wanting to merge between thinking about adornment and about our bodies as vessels for rest and adornment, and what that offering looks like to ourselves and to each other."

Neither leaning too profoundly into the particularities of one ceramic style or attempting to maintain any stringent authenticity to one tradition, Scott clarifies a powerful hybridity, a Glissantian creolization, that channels many global influences simultaneously. Her most recognizable references are ceramic attributes sourced from Greco-Roman and West African pottery. Even in Scott's nod to classical antiquities, the work is not bound by the constraints of exacting replications. Instead, in the spirit of intuitive improvisation, Scott riffs and revises those references and models new forms, offering bowls, flower vases, libation pitchers, candle holders, braided plates, ornate mirror wall hangings and indigo mats. Each sacred object aligns with Black women's traditions of adornment, spiritual rituals and rest.

"I learned craft and working with source materials through my grandmother and through sewing, and the way they took care of the land and earth and the plants we had in our home," she said. "I am first generation American, so I grew up with an immigrant dad, and I think that started something early in thinking about tradition and honoring things beyond myself that contribute to my own sense of self."

Troubling the frameworks that normalize inequitable value systems is an essential feature of Scott's practice. A long history of exploitation, miscontextualization, and sparse academic citation of indigenous, Black American, Caribbean and African artisans has skewed scholarly valuations of those craft traditions and resultant works. The institutional acquisition and display of sacred objects are not always presented in accessible ways. Locked in the era of their creation and placed on pedestals against white walls, the spiritual or utilitarian engagement with the objects are lost and articulated merely as dead relics rather than as living tools. Through reclamation, Scott creates her own value systems and materializes vessels and textiles that support the belief that Black women's lives matter.

"In a way, I wanted to reclaim things that I feel get lost now and things that I feel people tend to take away from Black women. I’m trying to figure out how I can show Black experiences in the highest, most valuable, and regal way, and how I can do that through an object. I think about my body as an object and as a vessel and how to show that through the placement of objects and ceremony," Scott said.

Rarely sketching out a concept before creating an object, Scott prefers to take a more intuitive approach. Through mindful awareness, she discerns features that should be included or omitted from each sacred object: braided hair, cowrie shells, beads, filigree, anthropomorphic janiform heads, glass for affirmation mirrors, gold leaf or glaze. This process is deeply meditative and catalyzes the creation of beautiful pieces that are charged with spiritual utility.

"It was a really intuitive practice of, ‘This feels good, let's go with this,’ whether that's through throwing, making the piece on the pottery wheel while meditating and centering myself, or just letting whatever happens come out through my hands, whether it's the way I envision it or not. I also think about the size of the vessel and what it can be used for, whether that's a vase or an offering bowl or a candle holder."

The exhibition is designed to be a safe space for contemplation and rest. The collection is aligned with a holistic practice that encourages healing. Visitors will encounter a highly sensory experience; smell the sweet resin of incense, hear a recalibrating and affirming playlist, and observe meticulously rendered ceramic, indigo textiles and fiber creations. Feel at ease.

Scott also designed a tea set that visitors can activate by brewing fresh tea leaves and drinking it from a regal ceramic cup in the exhibition. The artist hopes that by making sitting with sacred objects more relatable, others will be encouraged to consider how to ritualize their own self-care.

"My hope is that people — especially Black people — go into the space and see themselves. I want them to feel the importance of our bodies, our spaces, and our things being regarded as sacred, important, and worthy and to be intentional about their own wellness and their own rituals or lack thereof. I also want a conversation to happen around wellness, people talking about their own rituals that they do to prioritize and maintain their wellness and how it relates to some of the work and the rituals that tie into the function of the pieces in the show."

"Angelique Scott: Well Being: Rituals for a Sacred Life" will be on view at Black Artist Research Space (BARS), Jan. 9-Feb. 3, 2023. Opening reception Friday, Jan. 13, 2023 from 6 p.m.-9 p.m.

Angela N. Carroll is a writer and educator based in Baltimore.