Jemma Gowland

Jemma first trained for a BSc in Engineering Product Design, and worked in the fields of industrial design, production, and architectural model making before becoming a teacher of Design and Technology. With experience in making using a very broad range of materials, for a wide range of purposes, ceramics has become the abiding interest with its unique versatility and surface possibilities, the technical challenges and opportunities seem endless.

This work explores the constraints imposed by upbringing, expectation, and the need to fit with society. Using cast doll face, fired pins, and necklace, along with the disrupted porcelain surface, and intricate porcelain clothing.
The figures show the girls dressed for display, as a plaything, entertainment or ornament. Looks and behaviour are already prescribed. But the work also describes strength, attitude, sisterhood and resistance, the mask as disguise to fit us into the world.

BSC Engineering Product Design
PGCE (Design & Technology)
Ceramics Diploma, City Lit London

2022 Collect Open, individual selection, Somerset house, London.
2022 Newcomers exhibition, Contemporary Ceramics, London
Bevere Graduate award 2019/2020
Royal Cambrian Academy of Art Open Exhibition Jan 2023 (selectors prize)