The Jetty Gallery
Sjarifah Roberts
"I have always liked playing with clay. As a small child I once made an aeroplane from mud and tried to fire it in a small fire made from sticks. I also put in the fire some broken glass to see what it would do. The plane broke and the glass remained the same but my curiosity about the effects of fire on substances never left me and I have been something of a pyromaniac ever since.
I live and practise from a studio near Aberdeen, Scotland, where the outdoors – hills, mountains, trees – are ever present. When I am out in the landscape I am aware of an energy, a vibrancy that pervades all things. Each item has its own sense of being. Outdoors, this sense of being appears to be magnified so that the forms in the land can seem to be alive. Standing stones have a presence, trees seem to be listening, and mountains have personality, sometimes like a brooding animal or sleeping peacefully, but always alive. Weather and nature, and sometimes man, have left their marks. My work is about these things. I make marks on clay and manipulate it, using earthy surfaces and glazes. I also enjoy how changing light conditions change mood.
I am interested in making forms in ceramic that derive from the landscape and contain something of this energy and sense of being alive."