Phoebe Collings-James' work engages with experiences of hybridity, referring to the work of writer Sylvia Wynter as a route through which to decipher relations to Western ceramics as well as her own familial origins. Collings-James identifies as non-binary, multi-gendered, Black and British— with ancestral roots in Jamaica. Her work explores the themes of violence, fear, sexuality, and desire. Shirin Neshat, Ghada Amer, Adrian Piper and Sonia Boyce were all early influences on the artist, showing her that she “could sew or write or dance or swear and it could be art”. Her work speaks of vulnerability, eroticism, and of Black and Queer identities in the contemporary world. Collings-James first took up ceramics during a residency in Italy and has since made it her principal medium, though she also works with sound, installation, painting and performance. After spending time in New York, the artist returned to London in 2019 where she founded Mudbelly, initially for her own research purposes, but now also a ceramics studio offering free courses in ceramics for Black people in London.