A ‘hand woven’ sculpture shaped by the heat of the kiln to bring the viewer inside the built environment. 

To create these delicate sculptures, Petersen weaves a metal ‘fabric’ dipped in a ceramic slip. The sculptural distortions result from the intense heat of firing, so that the pieces are always unique, unexpected and uncomfortable - confronting us with the fragility of our constructed world through sculptures of a rare and delicate beauty. 

Created for Collect 2025, Night Time Dreams is one of an ongoing series of sculptures created by Petersen to highlight the inadequacies and inequalities of our current housing system. 

With the addition of black crystals and gold highlights to meet our curatorial theme of Black and Gold, she extends that conversation to denote the mould that creeps across the surface of inadequate housing, but adds gold to reflect the hope for change. 

A ‘hand woven’ sculpture shaped by the heat of the kiln to bring the viewer inside the built environment. 

Petersen 'builds' the internal structure to her work by weaving a metal fabric which she then dips into ceramic slip - the sculptural distortions created within the kiln as the metal reacts to the intense heat of firing.  

Ruth uses her work to draw attention to the fragility of our constructed world and Night Time Dreams, created for Collect 2025, highlights the inadequacies and inequalities of our current housing system. 

The black crystals and gold leaf are a specific addition to her work for Collect 2025 and reflect her constant experimentation with materials to amplify her story through these beautiful and fragile sculptures.