AN EXHIBITION BY DAVID CASS
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.”
Lucca X - Via Della Cervia, 2013, watercolour & gouache on antique paper, 29.7 x 21 cms
Lucca, Torre Guinigi, 2013, pen on antique paper, 29.7 x 21 cms
Lucca, Torre Guinigi II, 2013, pen on antique paper, 29.7 x 21 cms
Lucca I, pen on antique paper, 14.8 x 10.5 cms
Lucca II, pen on antique paper, 21 x 29.7 cms
Lucca III, pen on antique paper, 21 x 29.7 cms
Lucca IV, pen on antique paper, 14.8 x 10.5 cms
Lucca V & VI, pen on antique paper, 14.8 x 10.5 cms
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!” Floodlines II, 2013, watercolour on antique paper, 34 x 24 cms
“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Chiesa dei SS Apostoli, 2013, watercolour on antique paper, 31 x 24 cms
“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Santa Croce, 2013, watercolour on antique paper, 25 x 19 cms
“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.”
“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Rising Water, watercolour on antique paper, 23 x 29 cms
“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Via Della Ninna, 2013, watercolour on antique paper, 15 x 23 cms
“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Rooftops, 2014 watercolour & gouache on fold-out map 55 x 80 cms
“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Piazza San Firenze, 2013, watercolour on antique paper, 32 x 23 cms
“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno” I, 2014, watercolour on antique paper, 24 x 34 cms
“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Arno II, 2014, watercolour on antique paper, 21 x 27 cms
“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Floodlines I, 2012, watercolour on antique paper, 35 x 26 cms
OVERDRAWINGSMORE IMAGES AVAILABLE
Left to Right: Overdrawing I, II, III, IV, V & VI, 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.
Paris Inonde I, 2014, watercolour on antique mounted photograph, 11 x 16.5 cms
Paris Inonde II, 2014, watercolour on antique mounted photograph, 13 x 18 cms
Paris Inonde III, 2014, watercolour on antique mounted photograph, 18 x 24 cms
Paris Inonde IV, 2014, watercolour on antique mounted photograph, 17.5 x 23.5 cms
Paris Inonde V, 2014, watercolour on antique mounted photograph, 11 x 16.5 cms
Paris Inonde VI, 2014, watercolour on antique mounted photograph, 9.5 x 12.5 cms
“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.”
Montage of Overspilling Series, oil on stock photographs, 21 x 29.7 cms (sold separately)
Overspilling I, France, 2014, oil on stock photograph, 21 x 29.7 cms
Overspilling II, France, 2014, oil on stock photograph, 21 x 29.7 cms
Overspilling III, France, 2014, oil on stock photograph, 21 x 29.7 cms
Overspilling IV, France, 2014, oil on stock photograph, 21 x 29.7 cms
Overspilling V, France, 2014, oil on stock photograph, 21 x 29.7 cms
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.