Documented history
Face Vessels, Water, and Reclamation
Clay can face a history that collectors tried to detach from its makers.
Edgefield face vessels emerged from a pottery district powered by enslaved African American labor. Smithsonian Folklife’s account of potter Jim McDowell connects facial forms, water symbolism, grave practice, and African-descended ritual knowledge while also tracing the harm of appropriation and decontextualized collecting.
Contemporary reclamation changes the direction of the gaze. A maker can study the archive, recover interrupted knowledge, and refuse the idea that institutions alone own interpretation. FishyGrits places vessels beside porch practices not as talismans in a display case, but as evidence of material intelligence and contested custody.