BIO

Through sculpture, painting and installation Jade Cassidy explores the parallels between the natural world and the human experience. As her work is driven by intimate themes such as resilience, transformation and relational depth,  Cassidy is drawn towards the seemingly paradoxical emotional landsapes we face in this lifetime. In a world and time that lives in utmost division, her research revolves around the materials of our humanity that make us the same and connected.

Characterized by a dark, earthy color palette and softened by playful, gentle forms, her painted floral bodies convey human narratives. Cassidy’s ceramic sulptures are born from a fascination with the resurrective power of South Africas national flower ‘King Protea’ that capture her essence in a moment of transformation. The flower is a pyrophyte plant, which has a fruitful symbiosis with the element of fire and therefore literally rises from the ashes into a new life cycle. The clay works enter their own metamorphosis as they emerge from the firing process with new materiality and identity. The leather woven around the vessel communicates a sense of dominance and sensual power herby uniting her tender, innocent beauty with the all consuming force of nature.