This week, Watts Gallery announced details of its first solo exhibition by a contemporary artist. Opening in March, Halima Cassell: From the Earth will celebrate the career of one of Britain’s leading contemporary sculptors.
The exhibition brings together objects from the artist’s own collection – a number of which are rarely on public display – with new work inspired by Watts Gallery’s founding artists, George Frederic Watts (1817-1904) and Mary Watts (1849-1938), to explore Cassell’s evolving practice over the past 25 years.
Halima Cassell MBE (b.1975-) was born in Kashmir, Pakistan, grew up in Lancashire and now lives in Shropshire. A fusion of cultural environments has shaped her identity and underpins her practice and, through her work, Cassell explores what connects us rather than what divides us, finding expression for this in simple forms with complex surface patterns created through deep carving into unglazed ceramic, marble, wood and more.
Introduced recently to Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village, Cassell is drawn to the practice of the Museum’s founding artists, in particular to the life and career of Mary Watts. Cassell identifies much of her own practice with Mary’s: in her choice to work in clay, her choice to create intricate patterns inspired by nature, her shared interest in diverse cultural influences that characterise both their work and in an enduring fascination with architecture which, for Mary Watts, culminated in her creation of Watts Chapel (1895-1898) – the extraordinary Arts & Crafts mortuary chapel, now Grade I listed, conceived as a community arts project and built using Compton clay.
Over a century later and with echoes of Mary Watts, Cassell has created new work for this exhibition using local, Compton clay. The exhibition opens with this latest work, which includes a commission – the first acquisition by a living artist to join the Watts Gallery Trust collection. The commission will show the influence of both G F and Mary Watts: the piece’s spherical shape takes inspiration from G F Watts’s The All-Pervading (1887-90) – a version of which hangs above the altar in Watts Chapel – whilst Cassell’s choice of unglazed material, carved pattern, and sculptural form reflects the work of Mary Watts.
The exhibition also looks at how Cassell is part of a lineage of earlier artists who were influenced by world religion and culture, along with the influence of international residencies on the artist’s practice.
There will also be an opportunity to see Virtues of Unity, an evolving installation of exquisitely carved ceramic vessels each representing a country of the world and made using clay from that country. Each vessel is named after a virtue, those which connect all of humanity.
Halima Cassell MBE said:
“Like Mary Watts, throughout my career I have used spherical forms and vessels reflecting my connections to the earth and the spirituality of the universe. Seeing Mary’s work, I felt instantly connected to her multidisciplinary practice, which reflects my own way of working and her intense use of faceted forms, shapes and patterns drawn from nature and a variety of cultures. I have also found inspiration in our shared passion for clay, a material that allows us to explore the idea that we all come from the earth and we all return to the earth.”
Halima Cassell: From the Earth opens at Watts Gallery on 14 March (until 18 June).
For further information: wattsgallery.org.uk
Smith Greenfield has partnered with Watts Gallery Trust – the charity responsible for maintaining Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village – to offer its Friends, Patrons and members access to its expert insurance services. And, through a special arrangement, when Friends of the Gallery take out or renew a policy through Smith Greenfield the charity will receive a donation. For further information, please visit wattsgallery.org.uk
Image: Halima Cassell, Germination, marble, 20 inch H x 14 inch W. Photo by Jonathan Keenan