Cassie Hansen (b. 1986) is a ceramicist working on Taungurung country (Kyneton), creating midfire and stoneware vessels, jugs and objects. Her work is inspired by the simplified forms and linear qualities of architecture and the built environment, as well as the shadows and compositions captured in architectural photography.

As the editor of design magazine Artichoke, Cassie draws on more than a decade of experience writing about, editing and looking critically at design, architecture and interiors. She began ceramics in 2016, and in 2018 spent a year learning from renowned ceramicists Neville French and Kate Jones at Shane Kent’s Melbourne-based ceramics school, the School of Clay and Art (SoCA).

In 2019 she set up her home studio in Kyneton and since then has been developing her practice, creating a library of her own glazes, as well as clays and techniques.

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Stockroom Kyneton, ceramic space
02 June / 07 August 2022

CASSIE HANSEN
Sitting Vacant

Sitting Vacant is an exploration of architectural materiality and composition, inspired by the clay tablets of ancient Mesopotamia that were used to write stories, poetry and fables, but also to record building plans. The ancient clay tablets allowed individuals to record who and what was significant.

In my series, the clay is left unglazed in order to emphasise the textures and graphic shapes, as well as reference the unfired nature of the ancient clay tablets. Building materials – tiles, wall cladding and hardware – are used to create the textures, bringing an added layer of architectural language to the pieces. The hand-carved shapes – an assemblage of quadrants, curves and arcs – resemble site plans for elaborate villages, or can be read as the collection of material palettes used by architects and designers. These present-day artefacts record architectural messages – messages of scale and balance, texture and shape, composition and form – intended to be preserved forever.

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