Esther Palmer

Esther Palmer is a Ceramic Artist working in London. Over the last 7 years she has specialised in making wheel thrown forms. After interning with Tasja Pulwaska in 2019, she became Artist in Residence at Laima ceramics in Latvia, followed by Arquetopia International Foundation in Mexico. She recently graduated from The Royal College of Art. Esther’s work is largely rooted in the interweaving narratives of landscape and deep time. She sees the land we walk on as an archive of memories, mythologies and sociocultural histories. Like countless generations before, she seeks to honour the natural rhythms of body, seasons and earth through the making of ceremonial landmarks. Inspired by the ghosts of the land, and the inherent mysteries and energies of the natural world - the microrizal networks beneath our feet, the silent communication among trees, and the layers of time that exist in the mineral sediment of rock - she tries to make space for the ‘uncanny’ and the tenets of magic where the boundaries between the seen and unseen blur. For her, clay serves as a catalyst for contemplation, remembrance and imagining. As we are living through what many would define as a geological epoch of our own making, the ‘Anthropocene,’ she feels it is crucial to envision and manifest alternative futures where humans can exist in symbiosis and harmony with the rest of the natural world. Using the potters wheel as a tool for metaphorical excavation, experimentation and healing, she makes animistic mineral forms that embody growth and movement, echoing the dynamic forces and wisdoms of the natural world.