Collection Insight: 'Primus II’ by Bisila Noha

Thrown is a gallery based in London that specialises in contemporary ceramics. It was established in 2018 by a woman called Claire Pearce, who after gaining a degree in architecture in 2010, spent five years in St Ives, Cornwall. It was there that she discovered ceramics as an art form. She originally launched a gallery in North London but now operates Thrown as an online platform and pop-up exhibition programme that showcase exceptional art and design and explore the links and question boundaries between process, form and function.

Bisila Noha is a Spanish-Equatoguinean ceramic artist, researcher and writer who is interested in the unacknowledged contributions to craft and the history of art by Black and indigenous women, who are often unnamed. Primus is a recent series of terracotta vessels that explore ideas of dance, identity and migration.

Primus II was created in 2024 and represents a new research-driven direction for Noha. It responds to the story of Pearl Ellen Primus (1919-1994) a 20th-century American dancer and choreographer who researched African dance and sculpture as inspiration for her movements. Primus was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago and was also known as a ‘griot’, or an oral historian holder of cultural knowledge in the West African tradition. She has only recently gained recognition for her important contributions to the history of dance and her study of African dance traditions, all of which were conducted in an era marked by racial segregation and racist violence in the United States.

Noha’s sculpture responds to Primus’ dancing, particularly the movement of fabric during her famous high jumps. It was made using an intentional blending of techniques – the work is both thrown and hand-built.

Primus II is a wonderful addition to the art collection at The Box and helps open new dialogues. Noha’s work challenges Western views on art and craft, questions what we understand as productive and worthy and considers, in her words, ‘the forgotten women who have shaped the history of pottery’.

Many thanks to the Contemporary Art Society and Bisila Noha.