Current economic issues dictate the high rate of rural-to-urban migration South Africa continues to experience. Having personally migrated at least four times in the last decade in search of relevant work growth, I am now back in suburban East London witnessing the same rural-to-urban migration emanating from my home region, the former Transkei.

Street corners and shopping malls are the hub for job seekers, many living for months in the same spot waiting for their luck to change. Whenever a bakkie pulls up the men sprint over, swamping the driver, asking for ‘any job’. By sheer chance some may be picked to work for a day or two, while for others, the outlook is bleak.

When a ceramicist questions clay during its different, complex processes, the answer is usually one of uncertainty, and mostly based on chance or luck. It is the ibhago event these job seekers are forced to sustain every day that has influenced this body of artwork. Beneath the Raku transparent glazes are silhouettes and drawings of desperate men on street corner hubs waiting for that bakkie to appear, waiting for their chance to be picked. Raku-crazing in itself is random, and its aesthetic outcomes are loaded with luck, while the effects of Ferric Chloride stain guarantee the individuality of each piece, alluding to an imbalance in our society.