Chelsea McMaster is a Ceramic Artist of Caribbean descent. She completed her BA in Art at Millersville University (PA) in 2019 and an MFA in Ceramics from Alfred University (NY) In 2024. In 2023 she was awarded the NCECA Graduate Student Fellowship and the American Ceramic Circle Research grant. In 2024 She received the National Fulbright Award and will conduct research Afro Caribbean Pottery. Chelsea makes work primarily using coil building and sculpting techniques with low-fire clay and traditional finishes. Her work seeks to find ways to represent and preserve her oral culture and traditions through the ceramic process.
Black material culture is filled with objects whose complex origins reflect the people they are tied to. I make objects that hold the stories, memories and everyday occurrences that are yet to become ritual. Through the language of Black hair, I explore the idea of the braid as an artifact that exists uninhibited by the boundaries of time and space. Contemplating lived experiences in a black body, I hold space for objects forged through a process of communal history making. Using materials and processes in relationship with the artistic traditions of the African diaspora, I communicate the connection between place and identity. I further explore the parallels between the vessel, the body, and women as collectors and keepers of knowledge.
The Unbound Archive is a living reliquary for stories, memories, and everyday objects. In this conceptual space, objects are imbued with reverence for the daily rituals, practices, and culture that they facilitate. The archive endeavors to halt the othering of ourselves by enshrining the knowledge held by the people and objects that carry our past and breed respect for the unrecorded. By undermining the social systems of the valued and the valuable my work identifies and elevates ideals, and cultural practices before they need to be preserved. This work is in memoriam and celebration of traditions lost, and yet to be formed, and customs kept and passed down.
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