ABOUT

Caz 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, founding a studio designing books, brands and packaging. She has also created her own books on various subjects including pasta 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."

STATEMENT

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 uses glass, metal, plaster and stone. These materials, like clay, have powerful associations for her, embodying both transience and longevity. Using her language of geometric forms in a range of materials creates new meanings and connections. She uses colour to delineate form and surface, making associations with childhood building blocks, adding elements of playfulness. These works invite audiences to rearrange them in new compositions.

The works reflect preoccupations with Modernism and brutalist architecture, making connections, narrative 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 plans to develop larger scale sculptural projects to encourage audience interaction with her works and to re-evaluate perceptions about sculpture in site-specific locations and the public realm.