ALTAR EGO by Christi Steyn

On exhibition from 6 August 2026.

Public opening event 6 August from 18:00 - 20:00. Wine, Japanese Iced Tea and complimentary canapés will be served.

ALTAR EGO is an ode to clay.

It is a return to childhood, to the first sculpture I ever made: sandcastles. I remember dripping water onto dry sand, watching impossible towers slowly rise beneath my hands. There was no ambition, only wonder. No outcome, only play. These altars and ceramic structures are born from that same place .

Clay has transformed me. It has taught me that making is not about perfection but about presence. Somewhere between my hands shaping the earth and the earth shaping me, I became a gentler, happier human. Working with clay offered me a glimpse of what life is about: paying attention, entering flow, creating beauty simply because beauty helps us remember ourselves.

The hands that shape clay do not merely form an object; they give life to a story. Every curve, every fingerprint, every crack is a verse. As a poet who found a new vocabulary in clay, I have come to understand that ceramics is simply poetry that can be touched.

Each piece in this is an invitation to pause. To breathe. To touch, to feel, to sense. In a world where that asks us to hurry, these works ask for the opposite. They offer a small altar to stillness, a reminder that rest is not separate from life, but part of it.

Perhaps the most radical thing we can is stop for a moment and simply play.

ARTIST BIO

Christi Steyn AKA Qwidi, is a poet and ceramic artist whose work lives at the meeting place of language, ritual, and touch.

She is the author of two published poetry collections, What the Moon Gave Her and In Her Light, and facilitates poetry retreats around the world, inviting people into practices of presence through writing, reflection, and yoga.

Ceramics became a continuation of her poetry. Where words once carried stories, clay now allows them to be held. She believes ceramics and poetry are synonymous, that every line pressed into clay is a sentence, every imperfection an honest record of being human. Her practice is an invitation to slow down, to notice, and to remember that beauty is often found in the quiet moments we almost rush past. Find your whimsy, find your inner Qwidi.