Githan Coopoo is breaking the ceramic rules

Cape Town-based ceramic artist Githan Coopoo is in the throes of art directing a fashion show for his friend and collaborator, the LVMH prize winning designer Sindiso Khumalo. He has much to say about the experience. “People like to think that Cape Town is beautiful because of the mountains and the landscape, but it’s what the land has been through that matters,” he exclaims, leaping from his seat to gesture towards the panorama.  

Born in 1994 to a South African mother and a father of south Asian descent, Coopoo began designing against his parent’s wishes after initially enrolling for a BA in English and Classical studies at the University of Cape Town in 2013. “Clay came to me out of necessity”, he says. “It didn’t require any prior teaching.” He found it the best way to tell his story – which has come to include experiences such as living with HIV (he was diagnosed in 2018, aged 24) and queerness. 

Coopoo started by designing earrings – big, bright and boldly sculptural designs – and wore his creations every day. Fashion designer Rich Mnisi spotted the pieces and asked him to produce a capsule for his 2017 South African Fashion Week show. New York-based label Tibi followed suit, with designer Amy Smilovic commissioning him to make the jewellery for the label’s 2017 runway show. South African designer Thebe Magugu asked Coopoo to create pieces for his first Paris fashion week collection. Since then, Coopoo has become a go-to for outlandish ceramic jewellery. 

Trends are so interesting. But capitalism is awful

Jewellery has segued into sculpture – a joyful mash-up of pop culture, mythology and queer references that swing from humour to tragedy to social commentary. One blue and red ceramic jug, titled Virgo men will be the death of me, reads ‘The love was unrequited (again)’. Another yellow vase from the same series is decorated with the demand ‘Put me on a pedestal’ and sits on a plinth. Coopoo also creates ceramic handbags, including a clay replica of a Loewe bag. “[Loewe creative director] Jonathan Anderson is my Roman Empire,” says Coopoo, in reference to the social media meme. “He’s so adventurous and courageous.” 

But the artist has a push-pull relationship with luxury. “I think trends are so interesting. [But] I think capitalism is awful,” he says. “Both bags and vases are practical objects,” he wrote in an Instagram post during a 2022 show at Cape Town gallery Everard Read, where a range of ceramic bags – fake Hermès Kellys and Birkins – were placed on brightly coloured pedestals. “We have taken to displaying them as objects of wealth and success. We put both on pedestals [and] practicality is rendered optional in favour of their absolute beauty.” He concluded: “We’ve created a society where we feel good when we feel expensive… What then, are luxury goods if not a reflection of class warfare?” 

His pieces are also an act of protest. “Everything I make is air dried – it’s not fired. I’ve been told, I can’t tell you how many times, by galleries to work with fire.” He won’t. “I have had a terrible time with people trying to make me palatable and easy to consume. And I absolutely refuse.” More recently still, Coopoo has taken up painting; his first exhibition of works on canvas - a continuation of the visual themes and styles explored in clay, with bold colours and shapes emblazoned with text - is soon to open at Everard Read. Each piece will be covered with hand-designed paper and tied with a bow – only the buyer will be able to unwrap it to see what’s inside. “Life is a gift and it’s all about the wrapping, not the actual thing itself’, he says.