Catherine Roche has a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Reading University and an MA in Art History from Aberystwyth University. She has worked as an artist and lecturer in Fine Art for over twenty years, and more recently as a freelance writer with a particular interest in contemporary ceramic practice. She has contributed essays, reviews and interviews to various publications including Ceramic Review, Ceramics: Art and Perception, CCQ Magazine, New Ceramics, Sync Tank and a-n news, as well as writing catalogue essays, chairing artist discussion panels and participating in gallery ‘in conversation’ events with ceramic practitioners. She is currently working towards a theory focused PhD within the Ceramics Research Centre UK at Westminster University.

Catherine’s doctoral research project positions clay and ceramic artworks within the discourse of embodied audience perception. It considers their distinctive material and conceptual qualities that are differential from other forms of three-dimensional art practice, in order to establish an innovative theoretical framework for clay-based making that applies new perspectives to existing phenomenological sculptural theories. In doing so, she proposes clay-based artworks as phenomenologically potent, offering unique potentials that reveal and support embodied viewer experiences. Catherine presented her research papers ‘Crafted identities: Embracing Shared Perspectives Through Phenomenological Interpretation of Ceramic Practice’ at the 2017 European Sociological Association Conference in Athens, and ‘Crafting Sculpture: Embodied Perspectives of Sculptural Ceramics’ at the Association for Art History summer symposium (Re)Forming Sculpture held at The Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield and  Leeds University in 2018.