Elspeth Rowell and Emma Crocker are two young artists living on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land.

Emma and Elspeth started collaborating in their dusty share-house garage at the end of 2020, and have been passionately making ceramics together since.

Through the reclamation of the word ‘vulgar’, the artists portray their experiences as women navigating the contemporary craft scene. Their works explore themes labelled as such, including femininity, queerness, and female sexuality.

Whilst Elspeth is currently undertaking a Bachelor of Visual Arts at the Australian National University, specialising in ceramics and printmaking, the two are largely self-taught. Emma studies Public Policy and International Relations also at the ANU, and was introduced to ceramics when, one day, Elspeth brought home a 10kg bag of clay.

Ceramics has taken up a much larger role than expected in Emma and Elspeth’s lives, as both have found it to be an invaluable medium for self-expression. Their different yet complementary approaches to ceramics center around maximalism and bold colours, which they execute through an amalgamation of surface design techniques on diverse clay bodies.

Elspeth and Emma care about making ceramics more accessible to their local community, so that everyone can experience the joys of clay. Recently they’ve found inspiration in the ant nests on nearby O’Connor ridge and the cunjevoi that live amongst the rock pools of the South Coast.