Bringing African American culture to ceramics
Natural hair has always held a fascination for Murjoni Merriweather, who incorporates African American hairstyles – afros, braids, cornrows, puffballs -into her gracefully elongated ceramic figures. “I come from a majority black community so I base a lot of my art work around my own culture,” says Merriweather, 19, who resembles her creations. She is a sophomore in the ceramics program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).
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- Murjoni Merriweather works on her art at the MICA ceramics studio.She will be participating in the upcoming MICA Art Market. A sophomore ceramics student, Merriweather’s figure work focuses on African American culture with an emphasis on natural hair and the female form. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun)
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- A red iron oxide wash creates earth tones suggesting the skin tones of African Americans. The hairstyle on this female figure is taken from a woman she saw on the train who had dreadlocks flipped to the side. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun)
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- Murjoni Merriweather works on her art at the MICA ceramics studio. A sophomore ceramics student, Merriweather’s figure work focuses on African American culture. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun)
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- Sculpting tools used by Murjoni Merriweather as she works on her art at the MICA ceramics studio. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun)
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- Murjoni Merriweather is inspired by Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti’s elongated forms in creating her own ceramic figures. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun)
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- Murjoni Merriweather works on her art at the MICA ceramics studio. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun)
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- The head on this vase was an experiment for Murjoni Merriweather to see how the dreadlocks fell onto the shape of the vase. The green glaze was a surprise after the vase was fired twice. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun)
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- Art student Murjoni Merriweather places dreadlocks on a male figure’s head. Murjoni Merriweather works on her art at the MICA ceramics studio. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun)
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- Murjoni Merriweather works on her art at the MICA ceramics studio. A sophomore ceramics student, Merriweather’s figure work focuses on African American culture with an emphasis on natural hair and the female form. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun)
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- The Hindu Goddess Durga was the inspiration for the sculpture at right. The piece was part wheel-thrown and part hand-built. She envisions using the arms to hold jewelry. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun)
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- Murjoni Merriweather works on her art at the MICA ceramics studio.She will be participating in the upcoming MICA Art Market. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun)
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- Merriweather will eventually incorporate her broken ceramic pieces into a collage. She’s also saving the pieces to investigate why they broke. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun)
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- The Hindu Goddess Durga was the inspiration for the sculpture at right. The piece was part wheel-thrown and part hand-built. The arms will be used to hold jewelry. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun)
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- These are unfired ceramic male figures. Merriweather’s figure work focuses on African American culture with an emphasis on natural hair. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun)
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- Three unfired heads. They were the same concepts of natural hair based on friends and people that she sees on daily routine. They have glaze but haven’t been fired. Merriweather wanted to experiment with elongated necks. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun)
Groupings of earth-toned female figures, and bisque-fired male figures form communities of their own in Merriweather’s MICA studio space as she works on a multi-armed female sculpture inspired by the Hindu Goddess Durga.
Raised in Temple Hills, a suburb of Washington, D.C., Merriweather says, “Hair’s been a big part of my life in general. My mom always used to do my hair. Every week she would braid my hair; put it in puff balls…”
Whereas the female figures are curvilinear, the bodies of Merriweather’s male sculptures are more angular. But both are either bald or sport full heads of hair. Merriweather rubs a strip of clay onto a bristled surface to create the textured design of a dreadlock, then places each dread onto the head of a male figure.
The young artist has been taking ceramics classes since 8th grade. When given an assignment to make vases, Merriweather couldn’t resist incorporating a head with natural hair as part of each vase design.
She reflects, “I feel as though just letting your hair grow naturally is…empowering…because you’re accepting yourself for who you are and how you were born.”
Merriweather will be participating in the upcoming MICA Art Market.
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