Cassandra Chilton is a landscape architect and artist. Trained in both landscape architecture and gold and silversmithing, Cassandra’s design ethos centres on the relationship between living systems, craft, materiality, people and place. She is a principal at Rush Wright Associates and a founding member of the art collective Hotham Street Ladies whose humorous and occasionally controversial works have been published and exhibited both locally and internationally.
Modern Gardens and the Landscape by Elizabeth B. Kassler
Beginnings stay with you: This book had a huge influence on me as a landscape architecture student in the ‘90s. Published by MOMA in 1964, it is one of the first definitive studies of modern landscapes through a lens of contemporary aesthetics, one of those trophy books that had to be hunted down with images that were hard to find elsewhere. While my ideas regarding the nature of nature and modern landscapes have developed and changed over the years, whenever I return to this book I can still recall the sheer wonderment I felt at seeing these extraordinary landscapes for the first time: pouring over every page, trying to understand how these ideas were conceived and made; so full of enthusiasm and curiosity.
Modern Gardens and the Landscape by Elizabeth B. Kassler
Image: Kate Meakin
Poem by Lewis MacAdams, 2001
Uncertainty is ok: This poem was written by the late environmental activist, Los Angeles River restoration crusader and poet, Lewis MacAdams, who I met as a visiting design studio critic while studying overseas. I believe he sensed I was going through a real crisis of confidence and these words were unexpectedly gifted as reassuring instructions for exploring and even embracing uncertainty. This poem is a touchstone for me as I feel we rarely talk about the darker times we can experience as designers on both our personal and professional journeys.
I have been looking in the wind ever since.
Poem by Lewis MacAdams, 2001
Image: Kate Meakin
Paphiopedilum (Venus slipper) Brooches (2011) and Big Butts Urn (2020)
The tension between the exquisite and the crude is an ongoing preoccupation: I have always enjoyed making things and these objects reflect a variety of experiments in materials and ideas. The orchid brooches are a result of my studies in gold and silver smithing and explore the creation of wearable objects that are delicate and exquisite juxtapositions of precious and non-precious materials. Recently I have been working in clay, encrusting classical forms with grotesque elements.
Paphiopedilum (Venus slipper) Brooches (2011) and Big Butts Urn (2020)
Image: Kate Meakin
Lenticular picture of Ganesha in leaf form
More is more: India is a place I have returned to many times in my travels, and this rather fabulous lenticular bit of kitsch I purchased there has decorated my desk for years. It is a leaf form of Lord Ganesha, surrounded by his other manifestations. To me this vivid illustration encapsulates all things I love: jewellery, food, plants, complex compositions, hidden symbology, perspectival tricks, maximum decoration, garish and joyous colour, and an ever-expanding universe. It’s a lot!
A lenticular picture of Hindu god Ganesha in leaf form.
Image: Kate Meakin
This text is an excerpt from the catalogue for Subject/Object, an exhibition curated by AILA Cultivate that explored the intersection of everyday living and design practice. The exhibition took place from 17 March to 20 March at 514 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne as part of the 2022 Melbourne Design Week program.
