Assistant Curator Corinna Henderson and Head of Collections and Exhibitions Laura MacCulloch went to visit the home studio of sculptor Halima Cassell ahead of her solo exhibition From the Earth here at Watts Gallery, opening 18 March 2023. Corinna takes us through the day.

In preparation for our upcoming exhibition Halima Cassell: From the Earth the Curatorial team visited Halima in her beautiful Shropshire studio. Tasked with choosing objects for the show, we had a behind-the-scenes look at Halima's private collection, watched her at work and even took a sneak peek at our own Compton clay being refined, ready for Halima to carve brand new commissioned works for the exhibition.

Laura and I went, primarily, to look at objects in Halima’s studio, which is also her home, to choose for display in the exhibition. The majority of the objects we’ll be showing are from Halima’s private collection (not loans from other organisations). She showed us around and we got to see the works in situ, which is always one of the most wonderful aspects of choosing items from a private collection. From these discussions and the viewing we were able to put together an object list once back in the office.

As our gallery space is split into 3 areas (Showcase, Balcony, Main Temporary Exhibition Space) we were also defining what would be highlighted in each space and it will be as follows: Showcase (Halima’s new work including a commission that the Watts will acquire, made out of clay that was extracted from Compton), Balcony (Processes and Materials: Halima’s use of sketchbooks and preparatory drawing, her use of maquettes, tools that she uses to carve and cray fragments), Main Temporary Exhibition Gallery (a small retrospective of her work which will include key pieces that highlight specific important turning points in Halima’s practice) such as Bow Wave which was the first sculpture she carved in marble. Her main and ongoing work Virtues of Unity is the highlight. Each vessel is carved from clay that Halima has sourced from different geographical locations across the globe. Currently, this single body of work consists of 38 vessels but for the exhibition Halima will be making 10 more. As Virtues of Unity is an ongoing body of work, we’re really excited that the Watts Gallery will provide a first view for these new works. We’re also intrigued to find out from which areas of the world the clay has been sourced and, of course, the names that Halima will choose for each piece!

We also wanted to chat with Halima for us to build up more of an understanding of her practice so we can better reflect that in our interpretation. Her new book, 25 Years of Carving, is being published to coincide with the exhibition so we wanted to take stock of her achievements to date and really celebrate what that means for one of Britain’s most celebrated contemporary sculptors.

In order to make the dug clay into a refined material that can later be carved and then fired, a number of processes have to take place. We watched Halima’s partner, Martin, working on refining our Compton clay following the below stages:

1. Soak the clay
2. Mix it up into a ‘slurry’
3. Pour though a screen to sieve out all the debris you don’t want in your mixture (leaves etc)
4. Turn the clay to continue sieving and refining
5. Let it stand for several hours so the refined mixture sinks to the bottom whist the water rises to the top
6. Pour the water off the top
7. Points 4, 5 and 6 can be completed as many times as needed to obtain the required refinement of the clay
8. Depending on the type of clay, there may be further stages to complete for the clay to be ‘workable’. Halima mentioned to us that she often adds fibres and grog (clay that has previously been fired and then ground up) to reduce shrinkage in the clay body, which not only makes the substance more malleable, but prevents defects such as cracking during the firing stage.

This is really special as Mary Watts and her circle would have had to do similar. The art of working with clay hasn’t changed. She also used local clay.

In the first stage of her design process, Halima draws everything out in her sketchbooks to work out dimensions and pattern. Each object is conceived on paper in this 2D manner, before she begins to carve the 3D piece. Working in this way eliminates mistakes. Once asked about how she rectifies mistakes in her carving, Halima simply answered, “I don’t make mistakes”!

During our visit she was carving a new commission for Reading museum, inspired by the capitals of the ruined Reading Abbey. It was wonderful to watch her translate her sketchbook drawing (that sat next to her on the workbench) into the finished piece. Most interestingly, we discovered Halima is ambidextrous and uses both hands to carve.

More on Halima's work with Reading can be found here.