What makes a purchase âworth itâ? The answer is different for everybody, so weâre asking some of the coolest, most shopping-savvy people we knowâfrom small-business owners to designers, artists, and actorsâto tell us the story behind one of their most prized possessions.
Who?
Amid the eclectic synergy of Bushwick, ceramist Dina Nur Satti invokes memory as a creative act. Inspired by her Sudanese and Somali ancestry, Dinaâs artistry is a manifesto on cultural preservationâone that features clay vessels reminiscent of Sudano-Sahelian architecture, and the intricate craftsmanship at Academie des Beaux-Arts in Kinshasa. Itâs not surprising that the ceramics artist has garnered coverage in Vogue, a ceramics residency at Saint Heron (Solange Knowlesâs creative agency), and most recently an AD100 honor. Through clay, Dina explores the many different worlds that inform her identity, and examines her upbringing as a child in the post colonial era.
The artistâs roots stretch back to Nubian farmers in Aswan and Dongola, harvesting wheat and dates alongside the Nile. These ancestors, Dina tells us, remained on their land for several generations. Born in Chad, Dina first spent her childhood in Belgium, then France, and Kenya due to her fatherâs job in cultural preservation for the United Nations. Her work explores the duality of identity by centering themes of decolonization, grief, cultural loss, and land loss.
The foundation of Dinaâs craft is embedded in curiosity. Upon earning her degree in international intercultural studies, she spent seven years working in fundraising and development, while embarking on a series of art courses that led to her first ceramics class. She sums up her introduction to the art form as a moment of remembering. âItâs something that most peopleâs ancestors have done, so itâs a practice thatâs deeply therapeutic,â she says amid our discussion of epigenetics, a study of how behaviors and environment can affect the way genes work. âWhen I teach classes, a lot of the time people feel like itâs something that theyâve experienced. They say trauma is passed down but itâs also your gifts, and your memories.â This desire for collective memory embodies not only Dinaâs artistic practice, but the way she curates her living space.
What
