Fernando casasempere out of sync autobiography

Fernando Casasempere (b. 1958, Santiago de Chile, lives and works in London) works with clay, ceramics and industrial matter, redefining the possibilities of these materials for contemporary sculpture. Through a fascination with the imprint left by humans on the earth, Casasempere draws on archaeology, geology, landscape and classical and modern architecture to subvert sculptural archetypes, while speaking to urgent global ecological and social concerns through the lens of his native Chile. ​​​​​​​

Following a busy year - including the solo exhibitions Terra at the San Diego Museum of Art and Scratching the Surface at Bloomberg SPACE, a selection for the Loewe Prize shortlist from more than 3,000 entries, and the unveiling of two major new commissions at Henrietta House and Soho Place - I had the pleasure of interviewing Fernando in his studio in Hackney to discuss his practice, his relationship with sculpture, and why it is a medium so suited to addressing some of the most urgent societal and ecological issues of our time. 

Your work deals with some of the most pressing issues of our time, including climate change, extractivism and our relationship with the earth. In what ways is sculpture a useful medium to address these issues? What can scul

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Past Exhibitions — 2018

Parafin is delighted to present its second exhibition by the renowned Chilean artist Fernando Casasempere (born 1958), a sculptor working with ceramics. Formally and technically innovative, Casasempere’s work explores ideas of landscape, architecture and history but also proposes a profound sense of impending environmental collapse. Conceptually Casasempere’s use of earth and clay and his concern with nature and ecological issues connects him to artists associated with the Land or Earth Art movement, but Casasempere works out of a different cultural tradition, being profoundly inspired by the Pre-Columbian art and architecture of Latin America.

Trained as a ceramist, Casasempere’s profound knowledge of his materials – including both porcelain and stoneware – has allowed him to demand from it seemingly impossible results, creating combinations of clays that traditionally cannot be fired together, building structures on the verge of disintegration, and drawing colours and glazes from unusual sources such as relaves, the waste products from Chilean copper mines. Through precise modulations of ingredients, time and temperatures, Casasempere has made important contributions to the development of new possibilities in ceramics.

For this new body of