Through the construction of ceramic sculptures, Rebecca Ramsey explores the relationship between the circulatory systems of waterways, oceans, mammalian bodies, and architecture. Existing in the liminal space between familiar and strange, her work merges bodily sculptures with architectural spaces. Pipes become appendages and appendages become architecture in a mise en scène where objects are situated between the familiar and the strange. She is interested in how both house (technological) and body (biological) become metaphors for one another. Intimately intertwined, they reveal things about each other, and act as models for understanding larger cycles of transformation and circulation in the natural world.
As a material, ceramics have been used across cultures for plumbing, sinks, tubs, toilets and other sanitary objects due to its vitrified, hygienic surface. In Ramseys work, circulation acts as a metaphor to find patterns of connection between biology, geology and the built environment. It is linked to cycles of transformation, such as the metabolic processes of mammalian bodies and architecture.
Currently based in Montreal, Rebecca Ramsey has a BFA from ECUAD (2017) and recently defended her MFA thesis at Concordia University. Her studies were supported by Concordia’s fellowship program as well as the BC Arts Council. Notable exhibitions include “Ung Keramisk Kunst: Projekt Netværk” (Guldagergaard, Skælskør, Denmark,) “L-abri-désir” (Projet Casa, Montreal, 2021), “Points de Bascule” (Centre Clark, Montreal, 2022) Artch 5th Edition (Montreal, 2022) and the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery (Waterloo, Ontario.) Her research recently was supported by the William Blair Bruce Travel scholarship for European research and she has a solo show at Centre Clark next spring (2025).
