Juandré van Eck with his ceramic piece titled Cycles of the Mind that won the 2025 Sasol New Signatures Visual Arts Competition.
His prize is R100 000 to be used for a solo exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum next year.
His winning ceramic piece titled Cycles of the Mind consists of two connected gourd-shaped clay vessels, each with an embedded whistle made of clay.
“The sounds from the whistles speak to each other: one is a cry of liberation and joy, and the other a low, gentle echo of contemplation and unseen turmoil emulating the cycles of the mind,” he explains. The artwork is set on a short seesaw, which, when tipped, allows water to flow from one vessel to the other, producing sound through the displacement of air.
“I made this piece to talk for me and to talk to other people,” says Van Eck.
“I don't always communicate my emotions outwardly, I tend to suppress them and this piece is an organic release of what I’m feeling.”
Each ceramic vessel he makes is designed to breathe, move, emit sounds and invite touch. “All my ceramics are multi-sensory thing and I want people to touch them, to experience their form, vibrations, tactile nature and the sounds they make,” he explains.
“For my solo exhibition I want to fill the room in the Pretoria Art Museum with multiple sound patterns as people interact with over 30 different works. I want them to feel the emotion of the experience, and I think I’ll put up a big sign ‘Please Do Touch’,” says van Eck, who won a merit award at the competition last year.
“I thought the chances of even being in the top 100 this year was next to zero. When I heard I had won I didn’t believe it as I was so emotionally overloaded. It was only when I was on the aeroplane on the way home to Gqeberha that I started to think it was real.”
Raised in Gqeberha, art was initially a source of healing for him. “In life there are always things we don’t choose, and I started art therapy when my Mom got sick and passed away from cancer when I was 16,” he explains.
“I used drawing and painting as a coping mechanism then. And when my father passed away a few years later I did a range of charcoal drawings as this was one of this favourite mediums. It helped me deal with the anger and sadness instead of the emotions crushing me.”
He now lives with his stepmom Elsie van Eck in Hunters Retreat in Gqeberha and catches a bus and taxi to university. “My stepmom – I refer to her as my mom - is completely wonderful and she encouraged me all the way to pursue the Bachelor of Visual Arts programme at Nelson Mandela University. After classes he catches a taxi to Elsie’s ice cream shop called Gattis in Newton Park to help her out.”
At university, he says, they are exposed to several different forms of art, and he fell in love with the tactile, timeless quality of clay. “I like the earthiness of clay; I like a beer pot without any glazing,” says Van Eck, who only uses glazing on the inside of his pots for waterproofing.
“Working in clay is a relationship of listening,” he adds. “The clay tells you when it is tired and needs you to let it rest, or when it needs water or to guide it to what it can become. Clay, for me, is also a symbol of hope. In the tough times in the fire, it becomes stronger than it was before – a testament to growth.”
Van Eck adds that he has always also enjoyed sound – from rain on a tin roof to the rhythm of clay being wedged – and he wanted to bring it into his work. “I focus on sound-based vessels and as you fire, them the sound changes, where, for example, a B will end up as a C. It’s taken a lot of experimentation to achieve the sounds I want and I’ve lost so many pieces – explosions, cracks, glaze blockages and soundless pieces. Each piece I make, I learn more, and I feel that my work for my solo will be better than my winning piece.”
One of the judges bought his piece for R6300. He says he thinks the appeal of his work is that “in the age of fast living, AI and synthetic materials, there is an increasing need to calm down, ground ourselves and experience joy. I think when people engage with my work it brings them into the moment, which is calming and at the same time it offers a free pass to their inner child.”
Next year, in addition to his solo exhibition he plans to do his Master’s. “My lecturers have gone out of their way to help me develop my skill and I want to further hone it,” he says. “My ceramics lecturer, ceramicist Bentley van Wyk has taught me so much about ceramics, including wheel throwing.
"My sculpture lecture, Isabel Mertz, is my go-to person. I speak to her about how to display art and she is currently teaching me bronze sculpting and bronze casting. Bronze is very interesting but also very expensive, so I’m thinking of incorporating it in my ceramics, even in small ways such as for cork stoppers for my clay vessels.”
Van Eck says he would ultimately like to open his own art studio and become a lecturer at Nelson Mandela University. “I would like pay forward what I have been given, to assist other artists in their journey.”