20 October 2026
Artist Highlight - Ransom Sutton
Interview and Review
Ransom Sutton is an African American and Afro-Caribbean designer and artist based in London, working across product design, functional art, and interior design. Her practice focuses on narrative-led objects that merge function, materiality, and expressive form, exploring how crafted pieces can exist as both usable objects and cultural artefacts. With an MA in Product Design from the Royal College of Art and a BFA in Interior Design from the New York School of Interior Design, her work is shaped by a strong curatorial and material sensibility rooted in both London and New York.
ARTIST INTERVIEW
1. JET Mirror turns a familiar act of looking at oneself into an encounter with Black cultural memory. How did the idea of combining those two forms of reflection begin?
The idea began with thinking about what a mirror actually does. It reflects our appearance, but it can also reflect identity, memory and history. I wanted to create an object that encouraged both kinds of reflection
2. Jet magazine documented ordinary life, aspiration, resistance and joy across generations. What did its imagery offer that another archive could not?
My mother grew up reading Jet magazine, so it immediately felt like the right place to begin. It carries a personal connection while also holding enormous cultural significance. Unlike many historical archives that focus primarily on struggle, Jet documented everyday Black life in all its complexity. The magazine became an archive of ordinary moments that are often missing from mainstream histories.
3. The collage is placed on the reverse of the mirror, where it may not be immediately visible. Why did you choose to make this history something that has to be discovered?
Black American history has so often been overlooked, diminished or hidden. While I'm not trying to conceal it, I was interested in creating a moment of discovery rather than presenting it immediately. The collage sits behind the mirror, waiting to be found. That decision also comes from my own experience. Growing up and being in predominantly white institutions, I often felt I had to reduce or soften parts of my identity.
4. Wire braids are woven through the clay frame. How did you approach the braid as both a material structure and a cultural form?
I knew from the beginning that I wanted braids to be part of the piece because they carry such deep cultural significance within Black communities. Braids are about beauty, identity, care and heritage, but they also represent creativity and craftsmanship.
Initially I considered incorporating synthetic braiding hair, but it felt too literal. Instead, using wire allowed me to reference the form of braids without directly replicating them.
5. The vivid red finish gives the piece a bold emotional charge. What does that colour hold for you within the work?
The red immediately references the iconic Jet logo, which is instantly recognisable to many people who grew up with the magazine. It acts almost like a visual shorthand for the archive itself.
6. Your practice often honours the inner child through colour and maximalism. Is there a particular kind of joy you wanted this piece to protect or reclaim?
With JET Mirror, I wanted to reclaim some of that unapologetic joy you have as a child. The bold colour, hand craftedness and playful materiality create a sense of celebration rather than restraint.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR
Review by Sara Chyan, Curator
Ransom Sutton places the archive on the side of JET Mirror that we would normally ignore. The front gives us our own reflection. The reverse carries a collage of imagery from Jet magazine.
That choice changes a very familiar object. A mirror usually keeps the viewer at the centre of the experience. Here, looking at yourself is only the first half of it. To find the other material, the object has to be turned around.
Jet has a personal connection for Ransom because her mother grew up reading it, but the magazine also recorded a much wider range of Black American life. Everyday moments appeared beside aspiration, politics, resistance and joy. I think that ordinariness is important. Archives of Black history are too often approached only through struggle.
The red clay frame immediately changes the mood of the mirror. The colour refers to the Jet logo, while wire braids are worked into the frame. Ransom initially considered using synthetic braiding hair but decided against it because it felt too literal. The wire gives the braid enough distance to remain a reference rather than a copy.
There is a risk in putting the collage on the back. If the work is installed in a way that makes the reverse difficult to see, the hidden archive becomes hidden all over again. The discovery therefore needs to happen physically rather than existing only in the wall text.
I also think the work is more convincing when it stays close to Ransom’s own references rather than trying to represent Black identity in general. A magazine her mother knew, the experience of growing up in predominantly white institutions, a colour associated with Jet, and the form of braiding give the mirror enough specificity.
The piece is celebratory without pretending that joy has to erase the histories surrounding it.
A mirror asks us to look at ourselves almost automatically. Ransom gives us a reason to stop doing that and turn the object over.