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Ceramics & Glass (MA)

Caz Hildebrand

Caz was born in London and still lives in the city. She studied Graphic Design at Brighton University (BA) and the Royal College of Art (MA). She began her career designing books at publishers Penguin and Random House, then worked as a graphic designer and creative director, designing books, brands, and packaging. She has also created her own books on various subjects including pasta, the history of ornament and punctuation.

After a career designing to order, Caz has chosen to work as an artist, making objects in three dimensions that resonate with her preoccupations with architecture, archaeology and memory. She feels liberated by the opportunity to explore these concerns through experimentation with materials to give form to her thinking through making.

She says “I’m dazzled by the chameleon-like qualities of clay. It can be anything you want it to be.

Show Location: Battersea campus: Dyson & Woo Buildings, Third floor

Photograph of Caz Hildebrand

Caz Hildebrand’s practice is concerned with temporality, seeking to make connections between the past, the present and the future, exploring the intersection between archaeology, architecture and art.

“Working with a vocabulary of geometric forms that can be configured in infinite combinations, I am creating a lexicon with which to reflect on themes of memory, loss and reparation.”

Caz works with clay, using various techniques including slab-building, casting and press-moulding. She also works with glass, metal, plaster and stone. Using her vocabulary of geometric forms in a range of materials creates new meanings and connections.

The works reflect preoccupations with Modernism and Brutalist architecture, making connections, narratives and manifestations of memory; all set within the context of the urban landscape, which has been intrinsic in shaping her visual world. Caz was born in London and still lives in the city. Her approach is clearly informed by her past experience as a graphic designer. 

Caz is setting up a studio in Chatham Historic Dockyard where she will have a large workspace. She is planning a project at a brickworks, whilst also seeking residencies and collaborations with others to develop large scale sculptural projects with the aim of actively encouraging audience interaction in site-specific locations and the public realm.


Cast matt white geometric clay forms. Some coloured glazed surfaces
Lost & Found (White and colours)Earthenware clay, glazes. Photo: Sylvain Deleu
Cast matt black geometric clay forms, some gloss surfaces
Lost & Found (Black)Earthenware clay, glaze. Photo: Sylvain Deleu
White cast geometric clay forms made of Parian clay
Lost & Found (White)Parian clay. Photo: Sylvain Deleu
Cast matt black geometric clay forms. Some coloured glazed surfaces
Lost & Found (Black and colours)Earthenware clay, glazes. Photo: Sylvain Deleu
Six marble geometric forms, stacked
Lost & Found (Carrara)Carrara marble. Photo: Sylvain Deleu
Cast matt white geometric clay forms.
Lost & Found (Parian)Parian clay. Photo: Sylvain Deleu

This series of works consists of seven different geometric forms, that make up a vocabulary of objects that can be configured in infinite combinations. Each piece is cast in earthenware or Parian clay, some with underglaze and glazes in various colours and finishes.

Medium:

Clay, glazes

Size:

Various sizes, max 20 x 25 x 5cm.
A set of clay tiles creating a frieze of a cityscape
A set of clay tiles creating a frieze of a cityscape
A set of clay tiles creating a frieze of a cityscape
A set of tiles that fit together as parts of a cityscape in clay that graduates from red through to black

‘[…] a city made only of exceptions, exclusions, incongruities, contradictions.’

– Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

Medium:

Stoneware clays

Size:

240 x 30 x 20cm
Plaster sculpture
Civilization and Its Discontents No. 1.Plaster, 25 x 25 x 30cm.
Plaster sculpture
Civilization and Its Discontents No. 2.Plaster, 25 x 25 x 30cm.
Plaster sculpture
Civilization and Its Discontents No. 3.Plaster, 20 x 20 x 20cm.
Plaster sculpture
Civilization and Its Discontents No. 4.Plaster, 25 x 25 x 30cm.
Plaster sculpture
Civilization and Its Discontents No. 5.Plaster, 45 x 45 x 50cm.

These works are monuments to memory, explorations of what we collectively choose to celebrate and commemorate, and what we consign to oblivion.

The plaster components are made using techniques including casting, sledging, turning and carving.

Medium:

Plaster

Size:

Various sizes
Geometric shapes made from a mix of different clays. They can be configured in many combinations to create different patterns
Geometric shapes made from a mix of different clays. They can be configured in many combinations to create different patterns
Geometric shapes made from a mix of different clays. They can be configured in many combinations to create different patterns
Geometric shapes made from a mix of different clays. They can be configured in many combinations to create different patterns

These pieces are made by combining different clays and forming them in press moulds. They can be arranged in many configurations, with the patterns created by the blending of the colours of the different clay bodies suggesting compositions. They can be seen as cornerstones, architectural fragments or ruins. They can also be constructed as pierced screens where the inside voids become as important as the physical structure.

Medium:

Stoneware clays, glaze

Size:

35 x 28 x 9cm
Five different black clay forms
Five different black clay forms
Five different black clay forms
Five different black clay forms
Five different black clay forms
Five different black clay forms
Five different black clay forms
Five different black clay forms

This group of five pieces can be configured in many different compositions, some creating tension through balance and precariousness, some suggesting solidity.

Medium:

Stoneware clay, wax

Size:

Various sizes, maximum dimensions 45 x 26 x 10cm.
Print showing single geometric black shape
Lost & Found No. 1
Print showing single geometric black shape
Lost & Found No. 2
Print showing single geometric black shape
Lost & Found No. 3
Print showing single geometric black shape
Lost & Found No. 4
Print showing single geometric black shape
Lost & Found No. 5
Print showing single geometric black shape
Lost & Found No. 6

Each image is a portrait of one of the 'characters' in the Lost & Found lexicon. A set of six digital prints, printed on 380gsm Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper, in editions of 5.

Medium:

Print

Size:

59.4 x 42cm
Colonnade, Cast Bullseye glass
Glass sculpture
Cast Bullseye glass. Photo: Sylvain Deleu

This piece is the first of a group of cast glass totems that reflect and refract light through the turned contours of the outer shape, only revealed by cutting a wedge through the glass form, then polishing the cut faces.

Medium:

Cast Bullseye glass

Size:

22 x 8 x 10cm
Litho print
Edition of five, printed in two colours on 300gsm Somerset Satin paper.

Medium:

Lithographic print

Size:

50 x 70cm