Claudette Forbes was born and raised in inner city Bristol, the child of first generation Jamaican immigrants. As a teenager, the race riots in her neighbourhood, St Pauls, in 1980 made a lasting impression on her. Her curiosity about the government's attempts to fix things ultimately led to her pursuing a 30 year career in local area regeneration.
These experiences are reflected in her art, where she explores the complex issues surrounding inner city areas and communities.
Based in Peckham, London, she often gathers her ideas by observing scenes and people in her neighbourhood. She creates ceramic art that is provocative, subversive, playful and humorous. She aims to test interpretations of the present day, whilst producing tangible objects that contain a certain beauty and references a past.
Claudete brings her musical skills to create soundscapes to accompany her ceramic installations. These inspire and enhance her conceptual development and her making.
Process
Claudete uses the full palete of ceramic techniques to make her pieces, emphasising surface decoration with mono-print slip transfers, digital decals and in some cases metallic lustres. She also experiments with the addition of non-ceramic materials.