André Hemer
b.1981
CASS
- 2012
- Acrylic on canvas
- Purchased, 2012
- 593 x 685mm
- 2012/048
- View on google maps
Tags: appropriation (imagery), buildings (structures), clouds, landscapes (representations), melancholy, mountains, natural landscapes, people (agents), platforms (floors), railroad stations, suitcases, sunlight, trees, utility poles, yellow (color)
Playing with ideas of distance and deletion, this work was prompted by the constantly multiplying online presence of Cass by Rita Angus, one of the most famous paintings in the Gallery’s collection. Images of, and relating to, Cass are freely available on the internet. They include legitimate reproductions, unauthorised copies and numerous responses to the original painting in the form of school projects and even Cass-themed birthday cakes. Here, André Hemer presents his own version of Cass, created using a process that echoes the many translations Angus’s painting has undergone – from traditional materials to new media and back again.
(Absence, May 2023)
Exhibition History
Related
Collection
Rita Angus Cass
This work by Rita Angus has come to symbolise the hard-edged clarity of the Canterbury school of landscape painting. It was made following the artist’s ten-day visit to the remote high country railway settlement of Cass in 1936 with painters Louise Henderson and Julia Scarvell. The Canterbury style was also associated with an atmosphere of isolation and emptiness, often emphasised through small signs of human occupation and intervention placed within a much larger natural environment. While these aspects play an important role in Cass, the work also benefits from a sense of expectation, as we wait, with that solitary, overcoat-clad figure, for the train to arrive.
(Absence, May 2023)
Notes
Coming to your coffee table soon
On perusing Thames & Hudson's glossy new art publication, we saw a familiar name.
Notes
CASS
André Hemer's exhibition CASS is well worth a visit if you are near the Christchurch Art Gallery's space above NG on Madras street.
Notes
From CASS to <del>CASS</del> - Iterations of New Zealand's 'greatest painting'
Over 50 iterations of Rita Angus's 1936 painting Cass are collated in André Hemer's new exhibition CASS, which considers ideas of distance, deletion and dislocation.
Notes
Manchester Street
Manchester Street, Christchurch by Louise Henderson was painted in 1929 and shows a streetscape that remained largely unchanged until the earthquake of 22 February.