In her work, Jemma Gowland explores the way that girls are constrained from birth to conform to an appearance and code of behaviour to present a perfect face and maintain the expectations of others. The disrupted surfaces describe the vulnerability beneath.
Jemma first trained for a BSc in Engineering product Design and worked in the fields of industrial design, production and architectural model making before becoming a teacher of Design and Technology. With experience in making and using a very broad range of materials for a wide range of purposes, ceramics became an abiding interest with its unique versatility and surface possibilities.
Jemma Gowland has studied ceramic skills and specialisms on a number of courses, before completing the Ceramic Diploma at City Lit, as well as life sculpture and figurative studies. Being a mother and daughter as well as a woman working in a male field, has led to an examination of the role of the female and how societal norms still shape the way children are raised.
