Perilla Kinchin

Crammed with excellent photographs this book aims to give a comprehensive account of the work and practice to date of a distinguished sculptor who clearly transcends any distinction between art and craft. Essays by various hands look as one would expect at Cassell’s inspirations, materials and process, but also the evo­lution of her studio space (from a one-bed flat in Blackburn to her spacious light filled Goods Shed in Shropshire), and her beginnings (with a nice memoir from the school teacher who nurtured her obvious talent). These are followed by a catalogue.

The book has been supported by the Arts Council as well as private donors, presumably in recognition of the very positive public response to Cassell’s work at the major exhibition Eclectica – Global Inspirations in Manchester Art Gallery (2 February 2019 – 5 January 2020).

Cassell’s forms draw on organic and geometric patterning, often mediated through architecture. She has an aston­ishing ability to envisage her preliminary drawings in 3D, and a command of effects of light and shade. Predominant in her work are clay vessels deeply carved both inside and out. Clay was and is her first love but she works on it as a sculptor, not a potter. Early work was glazed, but she found that it softened edges: ‘a neat line is a neat shadow’. The hands-on carving is a deep pleasure to her. Beyond clay Cassell has experimented with various other materi­als – stone, plaster, bronze, glass, wood. The tools and scales are different but her carved forms take to them all.

Born in Kashmir and growing up in Lancashire she found herself ‘a foreigner’ both in Britain and on a visit to Pakistan: this has led to a major project begun in 2009 and ongoing, Virtues of Unity. She aims to make her characteristic hemi­spherical vessels from clay collected from – eventually – each of the 195 countries of the world, to underline our common human substance despite differences of colour and texture. Pattern is for her ‘a universal language’ and our response to it is very immediate.

This is a rather beautiful book, its embossed cover evoking the tactile appeal of one of her swirling marble pieces, the fold-out endpapers patterned with images of her endlessly varied clay vessels. The tinted type of the text is perhaps a little trying for aging eyes; but as a record of an impressive body of work and a riot of creativity in pattern the book is most appealing.