The installation Ambika’s Dream, shown in July 2014 at Ambika P3 artspace at the University of Westminster’s Marylebone site, formed part of a 3-day exhibition and conference that marked the culmination of the 3-year AHRC funded project Ceramics in the Expanded Field: Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

Responding both to the scale of the space and to the personal history that lies behind its name, the installation featured 200 small ceramic figures of children who gravitated towards large drawings of the animals at London Zoo, the ‘favourite destination’ of Ambika Paul, who was lost to her family at a tender age.

The child figures are based loosely on ex-voto figures of children from Brasil where the gift of prayer still holds healing powers. This tableau draws the audience in to the profound need for nature and the memory of a small girl who loved to engage with it.