Cassia Dodman is a visual artist living in Stromness, Orkney. Her work combines industrial, re-purposed and elemental materials with a range of fabrication techniques such as layering, accumulative processes, metalwork, stitching and print, in order to explore human impact on local marine habitats, landscape, movement, patterns in the environment and liquid points of tension.
Through a tactile, material-led approach, Cassia explores the processes of change and environmental pressure that relate local marine ecology with industrial systems and with the gentle human connection of touch, perception and curiosity. The work included in This 26 is formed from research into local Maerl habitats, explored through freediving, walking the coast and biocultural and material studies.
Cassia was selected for RSA New Contemporaries in 2018 and was a successful recipient of an RSA Residencies for Scotland award with the Bothy Project at Sweeney’s Bothy in Eigg (supported by the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Charitable Trust), to be held in June 2027.
The works presented in This 26 link the timespan between two pivotal opportunities made available to me by the RSA. In 2018, for RSA New Contemporaries, I began working with industrial textiles related to water and landscape, and this led me to develop my own material language and techniques I continue to work with, such as those in the sculpture Blue Rip. This foundational opportunity allowed me to continue developing my practice after graduating, building momentum and finding my own voice.
Looking ahead, the residency opportunity with the Bothy Project has come at a crucial time for me; the chance to have a focussed period of time developing new research and work is invaluable. I will be able to carry out field work and draw links between Orkney and Eigg, which will be a natural development for my work. Opportunities like these which provide freedom to experiment and gain experience without immediate pressure to have fully formed work are essential for building a sustainable and interesting practice.
