b. 1992, UK

University of the West of England, 2011- 2014

Cassie Ireland is a visual artist primarily using sculpture, costume, performance and illustration to weave together narratives of consent, power dynamics and shapeshifting.

Symbolic meaning imbues Ireland’s choices of materials and imagery, guiding their selection using an idiosyncratic methodology. Latex, cast and manipulated to resemble human skin, flayed, tattooed and pierced with memories and hunting scenes, reflect on power inequalities and ideas about ownership and consent over our own bodies. These narratives unfold not just on the surface, but within the material itself, which can be manipulated, eventually degrading like our own flesh. 

Skin, in Ireland’s work, is more than just an anatomical detail; it’s a vessel for memory, a protector and a healer that can also bear the scars of trauma. By working with latex, she amplifies its dual nature, its remarkable healing capacity versus its inevitable decay. The flayed forms, devoid of the body they once shielded, stand as metaphors for vulnerability and exposure, their narratives laid bare like secrets etched into flesh.

Narratives involving shapeshifting half-human, half-animal dreamlike defiant figures emerge as tattoos or painted on animal hides, embodying the fluidity of identity and flitting between conscious and unconscious realms. They act out scenes of vulnerability and resilience; half-human figures escape being hunted by hounds whilst a deer, pregnant with a human child finds a haven to give birth. These scenes reflect on our dual relationship with ourselves and the natural world, our ability to transform/ shapeshift and the power dynamics between them.