Stories
Bespoke: Lisa Cahill x Arent & Pyke
Lisa Cahill is an internationally renowned Australian glass artist whose sculptural work aligns with our approach to interiors, where craftsmanship, materiality and thoughtful detail come together to create spaces with a distinct sense of character. We’re drawn to Lisa’s ability to transform glass into something both sculptural and deeply considered.
There’s something remarkable about working with a material that begins in a molten, almost liquid state, requiring extraordinary precision and control to shape, yet retains an inherent fragility. It’s this balance between fluidity and delicacy, technical mastery and artistic expression, that makes Lisa’s work so compelling. We admire the way her work transforms a material that is often associated with transparency to an object that shows depth, thickness, texture and a beautiful sense of viscosity. It interacts with light, changing throughout the day and revealing different qualities depending on how it is seen.
Over a career spanning more than 25 years, her works have been exhibited internationally and acquired by museums and private collections worldwide. From sculptural lighting to door hardware, we’re proud to have commissioned bespoke pieces for our projects, working closely with her to develop designs that feel truly connected to each space. Rather than simply specifying an object, we have the opportunity to create something together that feels unique to the project and brings another layer of meaning to the finished interior.
The first project we worked on together, we commissioned Lisa to create a series of beautiful slumped glass handles. That project was never photographed, but the collaboration stayed with us, and we’ve continued to find different ways of working with her, including the glass element of the custom light at Speargrass House.
We’ve also really enjoyed exploring colour with Lisa, working together on pigments and different levels of colouration, from clear and black through to the softest pink. Whether it’s a small architectural detail like a handle or a more sculptural piece such as a light, Lisa’s work brings an element of craft, individuality and surprise that adds another layer to the spaces we design.
Discover a little more about Lisa below:
A&P: Was there a defining moment or influential figure that shaped your decision to pursue this profession?
LC: As soon as I realised glass could be used as a medium to make art, I was hooked. It opened up endless possibilities. The way it interacts with light means I’m never short of ideas, it’s always changing, always offering something new to respond to.
A&P: Looking across your influences, is there a particular object, artist, or designer that had a lasting impact on your creative work?
LC: Mark Rothko has always been a big influence for me, just that quiet intensity and use of colour. In glass, Toots Zynsky’s sense of form and fine detail really resonates, and Libenský and Brychtová for their use of texture and presence. All of that has definitely shaped how I think about surface, light, and scale.
A&P: Do you remember your first commissioned piece? What did that experience teach you about your craft or your clients?
LC: I do, it was a commissioned artwork for a private home very early in my career. It taught me very quickly that you’re not just making an artwork, you’re making something for a specific space and for someone else’s way of living. Listening became just as important as making. It also made me more aware of how important it is to communicate clearly about scale, light, and expectation.
A&P: Can you share an insight you’ve gained from collaborating with interior designers?
LC: Good collaborations come from a shared understanding that the artwork is part of a larger environment. Interior designers tend to think spatially in a way that’s incredibly useful such as how people move through a space, where the light comes from, how materials sit alongside each other. The most successful projects have been the ones where there’s trust on both sides, and enough openness to let the work evolve rather than forcing it too early into a fixed idea.
A&P: Which stage of your design or making process feels most rewarding?
LC: There’s a point where the material starts to resolve itself, usually once the glass is formed and the light begins to move through it properly. Up until then, a lot of it is quite technical and incremental. But when the piece starts to hold light in the way you hoped, or sometimes in a way you didn’t anticipate, that’s the moment it becomes something more than the sum of its parts.
A&P: If you imagined a parallel career path, what would it be?
LC: I actually nearly went into interior design. It still feels very close to what I do, working with light, space, and how people move through an environment. That sense of atmosphere and experience over time is exactly how I think about my installations.
On the left image above, a deep, yet translucent blue door handle belongs to our project Bay House.
Below, a chimney is crowned by a custom wall light, a collaboration between Lisa, Lost Profile Studio & Arent & Pyke in our Speargrass project, while further down, the pictured soft pink handles are part of our latest project in Bondi, Tiramisu.
