Bilston Craft Gallery is pleased to present major new work in 'Earth | Atmosphere', with ceramics by Halima Cassell, textiles by Seiko Kinoshita as part of the shape of things. This is an ambitious national initiative which contends that contemporary craft has a distinctive contribution to make to our understanding of cultural identity and heritage in Britain's diverse and intercultural society. Halima Cassell is regarded as one of Britain's leading young ceramicists. She was born in Pakistan, brought up in Manchester, and now lives and works in Blackburn.

Cassell carves into rich earthy-hued clays to create monumental but dynamic sculptural forms. The distillation of strength and elegant lines in Cassell's work reflects her fascination with architecture and geometric principles of pattern, especially the complex decorative vocabularies developed in Islamic kingdoms such as historic North Africa. In response to the shape of things Halima Cassell has developed a ceramic installation that explores themes of origin and variation. She has made a series of works, each in a clay sourced from a different part of the world; these clays vary in colour from almost white through earthy tones to very dark. Together the works present a visual and emotive celebration of diversity and the connection we often feel to the soil of our home country.

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