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Print (MA)

Amber Jesson

A woodlands scene. In the foreground sits a small stone circle coloured red blending to the deep browns of the trees behind.

Amber Jesson (b. 1998, UK) is a multi-disciplinary artist currently based in London, predominately working with pinhole photography, dark-room processes, etching, letterpress and forming narratives through poetry.

Earlier this year, Amber was awarded the Fen Ditton Contemporary Printmaking Prize 2023 for her piece ‘Deep Within’. Her MA studies in Print at the RCA have been generously funded through the Burberry Design Scholarship.

Education

2021 - 2023 MA Print, Royal College of Art, London

2017 - 2020 BA(Hons) Fine Art, De Montfort University, Leicester

Selected Exhibitions

Upcoming: RCA2023 Graduate Show, Truman Brewery, London (13th - 16th July)

2023 Contemporary Printmaking Prize, Fen Ditton Gallery, London

2023 TwoFold, Southwark Park Galleries, London

2022 Bethlem Gallery Art Fair, Bethlem Gallery, Kent

2022 Withheld, SafeHouse, London

2022 The Damage is Done, Pump House Gallery, London

2022 RCA Work In Progress Show, Online

Degree Details

School of Arts & HumanitiesPrint (MA)RCA2023 at Truman Brewery

Truman Brewery, F Block, Ground, first and second floors

Sponsor: Burberry Design Scholarship

A large standing stone in a field of long grass. Other standing stones and tall trees sit in the background.

What is it...

... to be a vessel?

Empty. Blackness ensues.

To contain,

To be contained.

Sitting between the boundaries of the seen and unseen.


Travelling on foot deep within,

To sacred spaces where the veil between land & person feels indistinct,

... I situate myself.

I walk. I heal. I breathe.


I feel the connection in those moments, to my sisters and mother,

Flesh touching ground touching flesh,

Separated by time but not spirit.


Hold Me, I call once more...

... She Responds.


Cocooned in the earths embrace.

A stone circle. A cave. A womb. A Camera.

Places of emergence. Places of transformation.

Life. Death. Rebirth.


Light transcends through sacred spaces,

Just as light is my medium, contained within my pinhole camera.

A 'womb-like vessel',

Bound together by film in a state of temporality,

... Matter transforms.

a woodlands scene. In the foreground is a small stone circle coloured bright red blending out to brown trees in the background
'Deep Within', Photopolymer Etch on Somerset Soft White 300gsm Paper, 56cm x 76cm
an oval-shaped woodland scene blending from red in the middle to brown on the edges on a soft white paper with a large border.
'Flesh Touching Ground Touching Flesh I', Photo Polymer Etchings on Somerset Soft White 300gsm Paper, 56cm x 76cm
a set of stairs carved directly into stone surrounded by trees. The image is red in the centre blending out to brown.
'Flesh Touching Ground Touching Flesh I', Details


“A circular aperture is an opening – a primal archetypal motif for birth and a place of transformation, symbolically feminine.”

– Eric Renner, Pinhole Photography: From Historic Technique to Digital Application


an oval-shaped scene of a large standing stone in red and brown, on soft white paper with a large border.
'Flesh Touching Ground Touching Flesh II', Photo Polymer Etchings on Somerset Soft White 300gsm Paper, 56cm x 76cm
a large standing stone with tall trees in the background. The image is red in the centre blending out to brown.
'Flesh Touching Ground Touching Flesh II', Details


“The archetype of the womb is that of the container - container space, the alchemical space within which transmutation occurs. Within this womb container all arises, transmutes, becomes and dissolves back into the cauldron of the womb to arise yet again, again transformed, again becoming, again dissolving”

– Theresa C Dintino, 'The Archetype of the Womb, Part I'


an oval-shaped scene of a cave blending from red in the middle to brown on the edges on a soft white paper with a large border.
'Flesh Touching Ground Touching Flesh III', Photo Polymer Etchings on Somerset Soft White 300gsm Paper, 56cm x 76cm
a cave surrounded by woodlands and a large tree in the foreground. The image is red in the centre blending out to brown.
'Flesh Touching Ground Touching Flesh III', Details
Two black and white photographs on a white wall, showing the close up details of a standing stone. A small shelf sits underneath
Installation View of 'Light Transcends Through Sacred Spaces' at Southwark Park Galleries, London.
a single standing stone in a field of grass. Black and white photograph. In the background are trees and other standing stones
Extreme close up showing the perspective of looking through a hole in a stone. Black and white photograph.
half of a standing stone circle in a field of grass. Tall trees stand behind. Black and white photograph.
a single standing stone with a hole through the top showing the sky on the other side. Black and white photograph.

Medium:

B&W Silver Gelatin Prints, Pinhole Hagstone Camera

Size:

52cm x 52cm Each
analogueblack-and-white-photographydarkroomenergyfemininitylightnaturephotographyritualsacredstonetransformation
Hand holding a small red box with gold writing reading the words 'Hold Me'.
'Hold Me', Japanese Silk Bound Clam-Shell Box, Letterpress, B&W Prints, 12cm x 12cm
Small red boxes photographed from above. One red box lies open and inside is a black and white photograph of a stone.
'Hold Me', Details
Hands holding a set of small black and white photographs showing a stone circle. Behind the photographs sits an open red box.
'Hold Me', Details
photo

Burberry Design Scholarship

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Royal College of Art

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Kensington Gore, South Kensington,
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