Description: Cassandra Downs is an Anglo-Australian and Stolen Generations affected woman living on Wurundjeri Country. She is a self-taught ceramic artist whose zoomorphic vessels explore the effects of colonisation on both the environment and identity of so-called Australia.
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Cassandra Downs is an Anglo-Australian and Stolen Generations affected woman living on Wurundjeri Country. She is a self-taught ceramic artist whose zoomorphic vessels explore the effects of colonisation on both the environment and identity of so-called Australia.
Cassandra devotes months of labour into each vessel - from finding and processing the raw elements used, to the phoenix-like ceremony of the pit fire - shaping them into objects of meaning, life, and a connection to place and time.
Her focus on sustaining Country through foraged materials and traditional firing techniques leaves the story of her process etched into each sculpture, the healed cracks and textured surfaces act as a reminder of our responsibility to conserve the world we live in and those we share this space with.