The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.
Ceramics Monthly: What role does research play in your practice?
Phoebe Scott: My research is multi-faceted, driven by my desire to capture moments of psychological realism. In addition to the study of anatomy, I’m fascinated by the brain-body connection, trauma responses, and the ways our bodies
hold and tell stories. Influenced by Bessel van der Kolk’s work on trauma, in particular his book The Body Keeps the Score, I seek to capture the moment when we consciously realize we exist within a body. My use of truncation, for example,
is informed by neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran’s landmark book Phantoms in the Brain, which looks at how our bodies are brain-wired with internal maps, independent from what’s observable. My research is also tied to the more
invisible aspect of my process—inspiration. I draw from photographers, painters, writers, historians, and social-political thinkers, as well as women writers like Hettie Judah, the author of Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood,
whose work gives context to my very new experience of being an artist and mother.
1 Phoebe Scott's Fates, 26 in. (66 cm) in width, stoneware, underglaze, fired to cone 01 in an electric kiln, gouache, milk paint, paint, wax, 2024.
CM: What techniques do you use to make your work and why?
PS: What draws me to art making is the process of problem solving. I obsess over the best methods to accomplish my vision. My preferred method of building is working with slabs. I get to work quickly, and when it’s finished, I don’t
have the stress of hollowing it out. I do, however, make my heads solid on a separate armature and then hollow them out before attaching them. This way is easier for me to get the shape and proportions while also being more dynamic in the application
of hair without thinking about the weight or thickness. In the past four years, my use of molds began as a time-saving tool. Instead of taking five hours to sculpt a single hand, I can use that time for more experimentation. I am much less attached
to a face, for example, and can slice and play and shape things in ways I couldn’t before. I still sculpt faces but molds cast from real people have a different feeling to them: This is someone’s face. This clay touched their skin and
captured their likeness at a moment in time. It adds something to the psychological realism and feeling of embodiment that is crucial to me.
2 Phoebe Scott's Threshold, 26 in. (66 cm) in height, stoneware, underglaze, fired to cone 01 in an electric kiln, wax, 2024.
CM: What role do you think makers play within today’s culture? How do you think you contribute?
PS: This is an incredibly difficult question, and honestly, my answer might change daily. Culture itself feels impossible to define. I might argue that art counters mass production, creating tangible objects in a digital world. I could
talk about the body itself, the trauma humans dole out and endure. Some days I believe the act of creation is a form of resistance, and some days it feels like I’m using my studio as a selfish refuge. There’s a lofty idea that artists
can make change. When we look back through a historical lens, it’s much easier to see art as resistance, as bearing witness, and as urgent self-expression that can speak across generations. But my job is to make work that is authentic to my
lived experience.
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The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.
Ceramics Monthly: What role does research play in your practice?
Phoebe Scott: My research is multi-faceted, driven by my desire to capture moments of psychological realism. In addition to the study of anatomy, I’m fascinated by the brain-body connection, trauma responses, and the ways our bodies hold and tell stories. Influenced by Bessel van der Kolk’s work on trauma, in particular his book The Body Keeps the Score, I seek to capture the moment when we consciously realize we exist within a body. My use of truncation, for example, is informed by neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran’s landmark book Phantoms in the Brain, which looks at how our bodies are brain-wired with internal maps, independent from what’s observable. My research is also tied to the more invisible aspect of my process—inspiration. I draw from photographers, painters, writers, historians, and social-political thinkers, as well as women writers like Hettie Judah, the author of Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood, whose work gives context to my very new experience of being an artist and mother.
CM: What techniques do you use to make your work and why?
PS: What draws me to art making is the process of problem solving. I obsess over the best methods to accomplish my vision. My preferred method of building is working with slabs. I get to work quickly, and when it’s finished, I don’t have the stress of hollowing it out. I do, however, make my heads solid on a separate armature and then hollow them out before attaching them. This way is easier for me to get the shape and proportions while also being more dynamic in the application of hair without thinking about the weight or thickness. In the past four years, my use of molds began as a time-saving tool. Instead of taking five hours to sculpt a single hand, I can use that time for more experimentation. I am much less attached to a face, for example, and can slice and play and shape things in ways I couldn’t before. I still sculpt faces but molds cast from real people have a different feeling to them: This is someone’s face. This clay touched their skin and captured their likeness at a moment in time. It adds something to the psychological realism and feeling of embodiment that is crucial to me.
CM: What role do you think makers play within today’s culture? How do you think you contribute?
PS: This is an incredibly difficult question, and honestly, my answer might change daily. Culture itself feels impossible to define. I might argue that art counters mass production, creating tangible objects in a digital world. I could talk about the body itself, the trauma humans dole out and endure. Some days I believe the act of creation is a form of resistance, and some days it feels like I’m using my studio as a selfish refuge. There’s a lofty idea that artists can make change. When we look back through a historical lens, it’s much easier to see art as resistance, as bearing witness, and as urgent self-expression that can speak across generations. But my job is to make work that is authentic to my lived experience.
Learn more at www.phoebescott.com.
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