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Jacqui Ramrayka

www.jacquiramrayka.com

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About

After completing my undergraduate degree, I co-founded a ceramics studio, Archway Ceramics, with fellow graduates. I combined working there with teaching ceramics until family commitments created a natural hiatus. During this time, I continued teaching, establishing after-school clubs for children and mentoring DofE Award students. I restarted my practice in 2018 and have exhibited widely, with recent shows including London Craft Week and Ceramic Art London. I graduated from the RCA’s MA in 2023 and am currently the V&A/Adobe Creative Resident (Global Ceramics).

My current work explores ways to articulate notions emerging from the themes of memory and grief, also Indo-Caribbean diasporic identity which – particularly since the Windrush era – has morphed into a hybrid crafted by different cultures. I’m looking at how objects can embody these concepts, exploring connections between personal and collective memories; trying to give form to something intangible using residue and remnants, fractures and erosion, to embody fragments of memories, decay and time. I use clay because that’s my voice, my material; for me, it is the only medium that can embody all these themes due to its immediacy, how it responds to touch, recording and remembering every action like a haptic diary. Layering slips, oxides and glazes reflect disintegration and renewal, suggesting a tapestry of memories, showing traces of what was there before.

My approach to making is increasingly intuitive, allowing materials to influence results. I focus on the vessel because it is a signifier (container for meaning and ideas) and powerful form (imbued with a history of sacred and domestic rituals). Vessels can be seen as a metaphor for the body/self, separation and entrapment – but also for holding together to prevent things from being lost or forgotten. I’m seeking to create objects that look like they have been found rather than created and looking at disrupting familiar notions of porcelain, pushing the material to its limits, to the point of collapse, distorting it, yet holding onto something familiar. The distortions, the broken edges and the fractured glazes suggest a narrative. What connects the pieces are the qualities of fragility.