Meet Jo Pearl, One Of The Artist-Activists Featured In Somerset House’s SOIL Exhibition

North London artist Jo Pearl talks about community-centred art, saving our soil, and the importance of artworks that provoke empathy in her interview with Olivia Wilton.

Interview: Jo Pearl, Artist-Activist

A plane hums overhead as Jo Pearl opens the wooden door to her garden studio. Sunlight spills into the room, illuminating two large workbenches, shelves of art materials, books, and a pinboard filled with images: ‘This is where the magic happens,’ she says. ‘This is my kiln, and this is my curtain where I film all my animations.’ She draws the curtain to obscure her face.

Pearl, 57, is an Islington-based ceramic artist. An architectural PR in a former life, she now creates provocative artworks highlighting environmental and social issues.

This includes Gasping for Air, a stop-motion film that simulates how it feels to struggle to breathe due to air pollution. And, of course, most recently, a piece that has now found a home at Somerset House in its SOIL exhibition. Unearthed – Mycelium and Odkin celebrates the tiny creatures that live in our dirt.

She’s not the picture of your typical artist-activist. Sitting on a claymarked office chair, Jo exudes less rebel-chic so much as an elegant defiance. As I meet her, she is dressed in knee length chocolate boots and a camel cardigan.

She describes her childhood in rural Bedfordshire as ‘pretty idyllic’ but, despite growing up in a family of architects and designers, Jo chose to pursue politics at LSE after leaving school. ‘I was sort of the one that got away creatively and it’s quite interesting that I’ve since returned to visual arts.’ Pearl says.

But of course she draws from her time at LSE. She does not shy away from politics in her work, believing that protest is vital and that art can highlight causes when observers least expect it.

It must have been a big decision to retrain as a ceramic artist. What was that like?

Heaven! I was so excited about the subject I was studying and going to art school is brilliant. And I’ve zigged and zagged in my life to do all sorts of things – so, to have finally found something that really absorbs me and have that opportunity, meant it was the best £27,000 I’d ever spent in my life. That said, I didn’t know exactly where it would take me and let’s be clear, becoming a ceramic sculptor is not a money play. It was a decision from the heart rather than the head.

Your work is strongly inspired by social injustices and political causes. When did you realise that you had such a passion for these topics?

It’s always been there. My dad in particular instilled in me early a sense of right and wrong. Although he’s not an environmentalist at all – he’s a car designer – but he was a strong influence. I have been worried about the climate crisis, too, for a while, but I think – especially over the noughties – we’d previously lost our way, we went to sleep and ignored it. So my work is inspired by those topics; I don’t want to be asleep anymore. I’m also in the privileged position that I’m able to make this work so I feel that it has to be put to good use.

And your work is emotive. What are some of the most extreme reactions you have had to your work?

People have cried watching Gasping for Air. People have felt physically tight chested while watching that film and for me that’s a feeling I’d hoped to convey. People might not necessarily be asthmatic – or whatever – but they experience and share the sensation of how unpleasant it is when you can’t quite feel the air in your lungs.

Oddkin by Jo Pearl is on display at Somerset House right now

Your works at Somerset House’s SOIL exhibition Unearthed – Mycellium and Oddkin focus on the microbes you find in soil. What inspired you here?

I was reading about how we need to pivot towards regenerative agricultural practices and away from industrial farming, and it was just one of those light bulb moments: I work with clay, it’s part of the soil. It’s very appropriate to consider how to value soil through clay. And soil shouldn’t be a dirty word. I wanted my work to encourage people to say wow, that’s extraordinary – how wonderful, this is magical. We get to have a sense of awe about something which is literally beneath our feet.

How does it feel to have these two pieces at an institution like Somerset House?

It was so exciting to receive the call from the curators. The size of the space they offered to me allowed me to scale up the ambition of my work, including a four-metre long installation of over 100 ceramic micro-organisms. It really feels like soil is having a cultural moment and rightly so. I’m delighted to be part of that conversation, to be included in such a sweeping, campaigning exhibition.

Jo hopes her work will inspire us to celebrate the soil beneath our feet

Finally, is there anything you hope viewers will take away from the exhibition?

I hope visitors will wake up to the wonder of soil, get composting, and support those already working hard to protect and grow healthy soil. We need to use our purchasing power to buy from local organic and regenerative farmers and support a government that puts money into re-laying hedgerows and rewilding land unsuitable for farming. Those of us lucky enough to have a garden of our own, it’s time to ditch the Roundup, let nature do its thing, leaving plants and leaves to mulch in-situ – rather than obsess over tidiness.

To find out more about Jo Pearl’s work, head to her website at jopearl.com or follow her on instagram @jopearlceramics. Soil: The World At Our Feet runs until 13th April 2025 at Somerset House.