Phoebe Collings-James’ work often eludes linear retellings of stories. Instead, her works function as “emotional detritus”: they speak of knowledges of feelings, the debris of violence, language and desire which are inherent to living and surviving within hostile environments. Recent works have been dealing with the object as subject, giving life and tension to ceramic forms. As young nettle, a musical alias, she loves sound that totally envelopes her and is part of B.O.S.S. (Black Obsidian Sound System), a QTIBIPOC collective based in South London who are nominees of the 2021 Turner Prize.

Drawn to high octane sensual emotional sound, with heavy bass and wild lyrical flows, she creates sound design for original music productions. Including Sounds 4 Survival, an undulating live performance created with SERAFINE1369, which asks the question of what an anti-assimilationist practice can be. Collings-James is the 2021 Freelands Ceramic Fellow and has a current solo exhibition A Scratch! A Scratch! at Camden Arts Centre, London. Upcoming group & solo shows include Loop, Eastside Projects, Birmingham; Productive picture disturbance. Sigmar Polke and current artistic positions, Kunsthalle Dusseldorf and The subtle rules the dense, Picture Room, New York, in autumn 2021. Collings-James’s Mudbelly ceramics studio began as a personal practice and research outlet, but has since grown to encompass a shop and a teaching facilit