Jane L MacFarlane

BA (Hons) Ceramics

I collect ceramics because I feel connections in the stories that they embody. I see them as gateways to the tacit complexities of lives lived. Objects can tell stories; they just need a voice.

My Ceramic practice invites collaboration by asking audiences to lend my practice objects that hold meaning to them. Often these objects bear the scars of their existence, and it is these memories and tales that I seek to reinvigorate by making material interventions that shift their context, giving rise to new form, narratives, and relevance.

These new narratives by their nature, comment on the commodification of perfection, consumption and obsolescence which conversely highlight the emotional legacies, historical provenance and sentimental meanings that traverse the human connections with the objects.

My collaborative approach highlights a faith in fairness, diversity, and authenticity. My work with gifted objects ultimately becomes a comment on the value and diversity of contemporary art. Completed work is returned to the guardians, in an exercise of dissemination of value and worth.


Rwy’n casglu cerameg am fy mod i’n teimlo cysylltiadau yn y straeon maent yn eu hymgorffori. Rwy’n eu gweld yn byrth i gymhlethdodau distaw bywydau sy’n cael eu byw. Gall gwrthrychau ddweud straeon; mae ond angen llais arnynt.

Mae fy ymarfer Ceramig yn gwahodd cydweithrediad drwy ofyn i gynulleidfaoedd roi benthyg gwrthrychau i’m hymarfer sy’n dal ystyr iddynt. Yn aml mae’r gwrthrychau hyn yn dwyn creithiau eu bodolaeth, a dyma’r atgofion a’r chwedlau rwy’n ceisio eu hatgyfodi drwy wneud ymyriadau materol sy’n newid eu cyd-destun, gan arwain at ffurf, naratifau a pherthnasedd newydd.

Mae’r naratifau hyn, wrth eu natur, yn rhoi sylwadau ar fasnacheiddio perffeithrwydd, defnydd a darfodiad sydd i’r gwrthwyneb yn amlygu treftadaethau emosiynol, tarddiad hanesyddol ac ystyron synhwyrol sy’n croesi’r cysylltiadau dynol â’r gwrthrychau.

Mae fy null cydweithredol yn amlygu ffydd mewn tegwch, amrywiaeth, a dilysrwydd. Mae fy ngwaith gyda gwrthrychau a fu’n rhoddion yn y pen draw yn cynnig sylw ar werth ac amrywiaeth celf gyfoes. Mae’r gwaith gorffenedig yn cael ei ddychwelyd i’r gwarcheidwaid, er mwyn lledaenu gwerth a theilyngdod.

Other Exhibitors:

Sarah Plant

Sarah Plant

There is narrative in everything. Materials are imbued with stories even before we start moulding them into shape. Clay is no exception, from...

Paul Kharade

Paul Kharade

I produce wheel-thrown vessels that I create with a sense of spontaneity, capturing the feeling of movement and growth. These qualities are...

Simone Youngman

Simone Youngman

There is so much beauty to be found in art history, particularly the figurative work of Rodin, Kahlo and Moore. There is an energy contained in...

Rebekah Barnett

Rebekah Barnett

“Life is like texture” Elizabeth day" (2020) Porcelain does what it wants, it remembers every touch we encounter on it and leaves a memory of our mistakes...

Lucy Turner

Lucy Turner

Through the outsourcing and mechanisation of labour and the outsourcing of materials, we have steadily become increasingly distanced from the objects that...

Rhyann Arthur

Rhyann Arthur

In this project I have been exploring the hierarchy of materials within ceramics as a study into the accustomed narratives of museum curation. The...