LENA PETERS
Lena Peters is a ceramicist whose work plays with folkloric narratives. Her interest in mythology, folklore, history and nature results in works that dance between the real and the unreal, creating illustrative objects which embody her storytelling.
Peters’ works were first exhibited at David Gill Gallery in November 2017 as part of ‘Vases and Vessels’, curated by Gianluca Longo. She joined David Gill Gallery in May 2018, and represented her first solo exhibition, ‘Saints and Spirits’, in November of that year. The exhibition offered an unexpected menagerie of shrine statues, evoking folk beliefs and household worship from across the world. Combining pagan and primitive beliefs with Christian iconography, these ceramic figures are part of a cadre of non-canonical Saints, conjured from the stories and animal symbolism of various peoples across the world. Previous projects include ‘Secrets of the Hidden North’, which imagined the results of an archaeological dig in the Northumberland National Park, above Hadrian’s Wall. The ceramics from this project were enveloped in the narrative of the wall. Unique in terms of style, motif and decoration, they carried clear Roman influences in their stories, form and design, whilst being simultaneously stylistically different enough for it to be obvious they were made by a different people. The objects in the images seem to be related to pagan rituals and worships, with an emphasis on nature and animals. Specifically, each image portrays the same woman in a variety of animal guises.
Writing of the imagined history behind this body of work, Peters observes:
“Historians posit the theory that these objects were made by a group of combined Romans and Celtic Britons who chose to live outside of the conflict, living hidden just above the Roman territories until the fighting forced them to abandon their settlement. In this exhibition, we see their gods, their myths and their history for the first time.”
Peters graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design with a BA Hons in Ceramic Design in 2017. Her work has been exhibited at the Lethaby Gallery, London, the British Ceramics Biennial in Stoke-on-Trent, and the Pangolin Gallery, London.
