david cass online catalogue july 2015
DESCRIPTION
http://www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/images/exhibitions/David_Cass_Online_Catalogue_July_2015.pdfTRANSCRIPT
DAVID CASS
TONIGHT RAIN TOMORROW MUD
3 JULY - 1 AUGUST 2015
Cover: “Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Rooftops, (detail) 2014, watercolour & gouache on fold-out map, 55 x 80 cmsLeft: Overpainting in Oil, 2014, miniature tourist postcard & oil, 8.5 x 5.5 cmsBack cover: Rain (detail), gouache on vintage jotter, 21 x 14.8 cms
Left: Overspilling I, France, 2014, oil on stock photographs, 21 x 29.7 cms
Tonight Rain, Tomorrow Mud features works on paper created whilst travelling over the last eighteen months. My artwork has always been concerned with water and many of these new works tackle inundation as a theme. I’ve been creating literal depictions of great floods, scenes of inundation and destruction: paintings of Paris in flood (1910), and of Florence
in flood (1966).
DAVID CASS 2015
LUCCA:A STARTING POINT
“This set of street drawings are the odd ones out
in ‘Tonight Rain, Tomorrow Mud’. They don’t tackle
the same theme as the rest of the show, but, these
paper works were in fact the starting-point. I began
creating new work for this exhibition directly after
‘Years of Dust and Dry’ (The Scottish Gallery, June
2013).
I visited Tuscany again, and spent time in Lucca.
I spent long days on the streets, drawing. I drew
in a new style, using mainly pen and paper. I
was drawn to architectural features, to Lucca’s
haphazard rooftops. I took this newfound handwriting
to Florence in late 2013, and combined it with
research I’d been doing into the 1966 flood: it was
only then that the focus for this exhibition became
clear.”
FLORENCEAfter a prolonged period of intense rain in
late October and early November 1966, in the
early hours of November 4th, two Valdarno dams
north of Florence began to propel up to 2000
cubic meters of water per second towards the
city. Florence was rapidly inundated as the
Arno spilled over, rushing to fill every part
of the city. Mud, oil, fuel and filthy water
spread through Florence - at its peak reaching
22 feet in Santa Croce, covering almost 7000
acres in and around the city. By the evening
of that same day the waters began to receed,
leaving behind some 600,000 tons of mud and
debris and utter devastation - to the city and
to its inhabitants.
“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Zona Gavinana, 2014 over painted monochrome print with watercolour & gouache 35 x 52 cms
“Paintings, drawings and overpaintings. Artworks
that imagine and exaggerate scenes of inundation
and destruction: the great Florence flood of November
1966. Inspired by photographic documentation -
from press, postcards, residents’ photographs -
and from imagination, I’ve painted scenes with
antique paints on antique papers, card & wood.
I began creating these artworks during late 2013/
early 2014: 47 years after the flood which claimed
at least thirty lives in Florence itself and
dozens more in the surrounding area; making 50,000
homeless and damaging 14,000 works of art, plus
up to 4 million books & manuscripts.”
Left to Right: Overdrawing I, XI, XIII, IV, V & XIV, 2013-14 miniature tourist postcards of Florence & pencil, 8 x 5 cms each
PARISThe 1910 Great Flood of Paris was a catastrophe in which the Seine River, carrying winter rains from its tributaries, flooded Paris, France, and several nearby communities.In late January 1910, following months of high rainfall, the Seine River flooded the French capital when water pushed upwards from overflowing sewers and subway tunnels and seeped into basements through fully saturated soil. The waters did not overflow the river’s banks within the city, but flooded Paris through tunnels, sewers, and drains. In neighbouring towns both east and west of the capital, the river rose above its banks and flooded the surrounding terrain directly.
“Overthinking, overspilling. I’ve been working on this series of overworked photographs at the same time as my Florence flood paintings. Though while my Florence artworks illustrate an actual historical event, this set illustrates a different kind of inundation: perhaps it’s a form of self-portrait, perhaps this flooding is of a more mental nature.”
DAVID CASS graduated with First
Class Honours from Edinburgh College of Art in
2010, receiving the Royal Scottish Academy’s
John Kinross Scholarship to Florence. The RSA
now holds six of his artworks in their permanent
collection. Cass has spent extended periods of time
working in Italy, Belgium, Spain and France. He
is currently based in the Scottish Borders and takes
regular research trips into mainland Europe.
Cass has received a series of notable awards and
has been part of several key UK arts events (the
Threadneedle Prize, the Sunday Times Watercolour
Competition, the National Open Art Competition,
the RWS). He has exhibited in many of the UK’s
principal institutions: The Scottish Gallery, The
Royal Academy, The Royal College of Art, The
Royal Scottish Academy, and The Mall Galleries
- and further afield too, in Florence, Brussels,
Barcelona, Toronto. Cass has pieces in collections
around the world.
In 2014 & 2015 Cass completed a set of Artists’
Residencies in Spain, simultaneously, he worked
for a period with arts organisation Joya: arte +
ecología. His ongoing Florence flood project will see
his regular return to the city over the coming year.