Cassy Oliphant

Born in 1984, Cassy Oliphant is an artist with British and Singaporean-Chinese heritage. She reflects on evolving narratives on identity, belonging, and family journeys.

Her practice moves between painting, textile, and photographic processes such as cyanotype. Her work weaves folklore and family memory, piecing together what might otherwise fade. Stories otfen arrive at us in fragments. Some are carefully passed down, others are half-remembered, and some are hidden or lost. In Cassy’s family, memories feel fragile – a combination of spaces in terms of geography, memory and time. Making artwork has become her way of holding onto what might otherwise fade, despite all of its instability. The materials she uses carry this sense of care and repair. In Peranakan embroidery, for example, fabric is both stitched and cut away, creating something delicate but strong. For the artist, this mirrors how memory works: reinforcing parts, revealing gaps, sometimes leaving scaffolds behind. With cyanotype, images appear only partially, sometimes fading, much like memory itself. Painting brings a different energy – more fluid, intuitive and playful, echoing the shifting, symbolic nature of folktales.

A graduate in English literature from Leeds University she also studied Design and Art Therapy at Crawford College of Art and design. After working as a community artist for nearly 20 years she refocused and developed her own art practice in the past 7 years.