Ruby Jackson

This body of work represents both a newfound interest in “uncovering” my family’s history as it relates to my own, and in exploring how the physicality and materiality of ceramics can establish relationships between one’s body and physical forms.

This collection of work is an attempt at bridging the gap between my “presence” and the past through the associations I make with color, form, material, process and scale. These pieces are intended to reference the human form through their gestures, stances and other vaguely human attributes. They’re also meant to evoke the body in a larger way through the innate physical nature of clay and the necessity of working with it sculpturally using one’s whole body to do so, and in smaller ways through the various marks, folds, creases, and fingerprints that remain.

This combination of interests also coincided with my participation in an archaeological dig this year, which pushed me learn more about my past and the past of ceramics. This experience led me to develop and explore my own ‘personal archaeology’ in the realm of clay and this body of work.