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 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, 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.

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

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.