Tegan Hale
Tegan Hale writes about Cassie Thring in Neoterica 2024.
the sea is a mirror, not only to the clouds, the sun, the moon & the stars, but to all one’s dreams & speculations. the sea tells us that everything is changing & that nothing ever changes, that tides go out & return, that all existence is a rhythm.
Arthur Symons, 1918
In late 2023 I visit Floating Goose studio to meet Cassie Thring and discuss her work in progress for Neoterica. During the visit Thring shares two pieces of source material that beautifully crystalise the ideas and themes at play within the artwork that will evolve to be the delightfully quirky ceramic assemblage you now see before you.
The first is a piece of writing drawn from The Symbolist Movement in Literature, a book first published in 1899 by Arthur Symons. Thring confides she can’t get enough of the passage, returning to it repeatedly throughout the making process. The second is a tiny reproduction, pinned to the studio wall, of a painting by American Landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church. The artwork, titled The Iceberg, c. 1875, typifies the representation of the sublime in art with one distinct note. The sea is not tumultuous in this rendition, it is calm. The mind, rather than the eye, is drawn to consider the awesome nature of the unseen, the depths of the unknown. What is beneath this tiny boat floating past a vast iceberg in the golden glow of late afternoon?
Rather than the overwhelming power of the natural world, Thring’s work explores the psychological and interpersonal. There are, in our daily lives, unseen forces at play on every one of us. Trauma, adversity, support, love, care, neglect. The ebb and flow of existence. The omnipresent duality of life plays out through the equal and opposing forces of change and continuity. Calm above the surface, Thring asks the question – what lies beneath?
Psychological suspense is skilfully created by the artist’s choice of subject and symbolic reference, while the use of materials, ceramic and sculptural installation, is whimsical, disarming even. The tension arising from these choices lies at the core of Thring’s success as a compelling visual storyteller and creative provocateur. Cassie Thring emerges as a thoughtful creator whose fascination with humans and human nature shines through the work.
While Thring's approach, by her own admission, is primarily philosophical and personal, audiences are likely to discern political subtext in the work. In this era of environmental insecurity, the human figure, inflated with self-importance, stumbles awkwardly through the unknowable expanse of nature.
The sharks are circling; are we already dead in the water?
Physically and philosophically, the delicate equilibrium between human life and the powerful, ever-changing forces of the natural world is explored. The glassy surface of Thring's work reflects the physical world, celestial bodies above, the looming faces of the art audience, and simultaneously our dreams and musings, the individual and the collective.
The sea of Symon’s opening poetry is a powerful and ever-changing entity, embodying the dynamism and unpredictability of existence. The inseparable interconnectedness of nature and human experience. Stillness, Thring reminds us, is inevitably an illusion.
What lesson does the sea have to offer you?
Tegan Hale is an arts worker and writer living on Kaurna Country in Adelaide, South Australia. She holds a Masters in Art History and Masters in Curatorial Studies from The University of Adelaide and has spent the last ten years supporting artists to bring their creative practices to the public. Having previously worked at the Biennale of Sydney, as a freelance writer for Guildhouse and at the South Australian Writers Centre and at the Murray Bridge Regional Gallery in the role of Public Art Officer. Her current 'day job' is working for the City of Adelaide in the role of Project Lead - Public Art.