Clay, craft and cultural memory
- Dina brings a background in intercultural studies to her work in ceramics
- She makes by coil building and applying burnishing techniques learned in Ethiopia
- Her ceramic pieces connect contemporary audiences to ancient African traditions
Dina Nur Satti is a Sudanese-born artist whose ceramic practice explores Nubian heritage, traditions and ancient viewpoints through sculpture. Her discovery of clay came almost by accident in an introductory class in New York, where she was studying international and intercultural studies with a focus on Africa and the Middle East. The connection was immediate. What began as experimentation soon became a deeper investigation into heritage, as Dina built a small home studio and began teaching herself, also learning at community workshops. Since establishing her own studio in 2020, her striking coil built vessels and sculptures have become a way of linking contemporary practice with some of the African continent’s most long-held craft traditions. “I see my work with clay as a way to explore ancient rituals, cosmologies and cultural memory,” she says.
INTERVIEW
About six months after I began working with clay, I understood it could hold the ideas I was exploring through my research on traditional African crafts. Ceramics are one of the oldest forms of craft and are connected to ancient rituals, stories and histories.
I learned in communal sculpture studios, observing and receiving feedback from many artists rather than one mentor. Later, in Ethiopia, I spent a month with the Kechene Women’s Pottery Collective learning coil building and burnishing, techniques that transformed my practice.
I am of Nubian heritage and I research traditional uses of clay in rituals across Nubia. My work connects those ancient practices with the Nubian people who are still living today, exploring how objects carry memory, belief and identity across generations.
Beyond craft, I see my expertise as storytelling. In many cultures, artists were not just makers but keepers of stories, translating ideas, memories and beliefs. Through clay, I try to bring something from the unseen world of imagination and spirit into physical form.
