Chloé Rosetta Bell - Fossilised Ash and Lobster Vessel

Chloé Rosetta Bell

Fossilised Ash and Lobster Vessel, 2024

Stoneware and wild clay. Fossilised wood, crab and lobster shells, seaweed and brass

21 x 22ø cm 

About the artist

Chloé Rosetta Bell is a Ceramic Artist. Material-focused and primarily working in clay, Bell's practice examines her relationship with the land surrounding her home in the Undercliff on the Isle of Wight, in one of the largest areas of urban landslip in Europe. The land is continually changing and responding to the impact of the sea and its own geological composition. Bell's objects are physical and sensory records of her experience in the land. They become a tangible celebration of the land and water surrounding it.

For the Undercliff, Island Collection, Chloé Rosetta Bell has worked with a local fisherman to source fossilised wood, crab and lobster shells - a by-product of his livelihood. Bell has also gathered landfall from the cliffs below her studio to develop wild sand slips and glazes. These materials are, in a literal sense, 'of the water' surrounding her studio. She has observed how this water has eroded and transformed these materials on the land and in her studio and revealed material qualities to be elevated in the studio.

Chloé Rosetta Bell graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2019 where she developed unique glazes from oyster shells at Porthilly Oyster Farm and chalk residue produced from washing Halen Môn’s sea salt. Bell continues to work on collections that focus on by-products of the land.