Beltane

Phoebe Cummings (b. 1981)
Phoebe Cummings’ works predominantly
using unfired clay to make poetic and
performative sculptures and installations
that emphasise materiality, fragility, time,
creation, loss and decay. Her impressive
interventions are often constructed directly
on site, allowing an instinctive development
of tensions between object and location.
Cummings questions what we will carry
forward into the future by producing
intricate, hand made and exquisitely
delicate sculptures based on ancient plants
and primitive ritual, imbued with a sense
of magic and mysticism. Drawing together
elements of English Paganism as well as
the aesthetic excess of Baroque and Rococo
design, the resultant objects could be
considered as dystopian ornaments of a
future anthropology or fragile relics of an
almost forgotten past.
Cummings is a British artist born in
Walsall, England and currently resides in
Stafford. She studied ceramics at Brighton
University in 2002 before completing an
MA in ceramics and glass at the Royal
College of Art in 2005. She has undertaken
a number of international artist residencies
including a six month residency at the
Victoria & Albert Museum in 2010. In 2017
she won first place at the inaugural Woman’s
Hour Craft Prize with work exhibited at the
V&A Museum, before touring to venues
around the UK. Cummings was selected
as the winner of the British Ceramics
Biennial Award in 2011 and awarded a
ceramics fellowship at London’s Camden
Arts Centre (2012–13). ‘Supernatural’ was
her first solo exhibition at Anima-Mundi.
In addition, Cummings’ work has been
featured in numerous group exhibitions,
including ‘60|40 Starting Point Series’ at
Siobhan Davies Studios, London, ‘Formed
Thoughts’ at Jerwood Space, London;
and ‘Swept Away: Dust, Ashes, and Dirt
in Contemporary Art and Design’ at the
Museum of Arts and Design, New York. In
2013, she had a solo show at the University
of Hawaii Art Gallery in Honolulu and The
Newlyn Art Gallery.
Study
unfired clay, 20 x 15 x 20 cm
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