I presented a collection of ceramic sculptures titled The Female Landscape. This work comprised of 5 separate pieces, based on the female form but engaging with different aspects of this.

One of the works,  All Our Daughters was made in response to the publication of the figures of the numbers of women killed by men in the first week of the COVID lockdown in the UK in March 2020. Others responded to issues of body image, how society conditions us to see ourselves, and pressures of being a woman in the modern day.

The process of getting my work ready to present made me focus on how to actually physically present this body of work. There are over 60 torsos of different sizes in these five pieces and I realised that my main focus had been on the making and I hadn’t thought much about how a viewer would experience the work or the flow of the viewer walking round the collection, so that was really useful. It has also helped me think about how I take the work onto the next stage and what I want to develop to enhance this.

I work alone and so don’t often get feedback on my work. This opportunity allowed me the space that helped me step back and see it afresh. It was such a positive experience. I think the structure of the session is supportive and well designed. For me the reactions to my work were stronger than I had anticipated and this was really useful as I reflect and consider where I want to develop the collection further.

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