Rachel Wood’s ceramics are noted for their expressive, visceral, yet calm and considered qualities. Animated and complex surfaces, swathed with layer upon layer of slip and glaze, are carefully nurtured to life and so compel the viewer to their mysterious and hidden depths.
The irresistible touch of human spirit and physicality merged with the clay are the foundations of her practical and intellectual ethos. Each fingerprint, tool mark, rip and join, traces the playful trail of making with clay, just as every footstep in the landscapes of local Derbyshire and stride in the evocative Australian bush infuses the images and feelings in her head and heart. But it is not just about depicting a tactile physical reality through this free and spontaneous process – we are enticed towards a metaphysical world, where the tangible transforms to the calm and acceptance of the intangible.
