For David Cass, the ocean supplies an limitless supply of marvel in its depths, historical past, bounty and generally ferocity. Primarily based between the Scottish Borders and Athens, the (beforehand) artist has lengthy been fascinated by the facility of water, significantly its rising vulnerability to the results of the local weather disaster.
On discovered objects reminiscent of bins and matchboxes to e book pages and vintage pulleys, Cass repeats wave motifs and distant marine horizons in oil and gouache. In gentle on water, His present solo exhibition at The Scottish Gallery, the artist continues to handle warming and quickly rising ocean ranges world wide by work that hover between abstraction and illustration.
Whereas creating a lot of the work for the present at his studio in Greece, Cass thought-about the panorama exterior – its islands and peninsulas engulfed in water. He noticed how the undulating floor can change its look second by second because of the climate or the time of day. Though “behind this hypnotic picture lies a menace,” he says in an announcement. “On this exhibition, gentle additionally represents heat.”
Cass factors to estimates that 91 % of Earth's extra warmth power trapped within the local weather system is saved by our oceans. Because the planet continues to heat, this storage capability disappears, threatening all life.
The artist appeals to a time earlier than we have been conscious of local weather change in a sequence of oil work titled 500 yearswhich subtly nods to outdated masters such because the Flemish marine artist Andries van Eertvelt. Cass evokes an period that precedes the Industrial Age, concurrently visualizing the daybreak of greenhouse gases and a world endlessly modified within the identify of progress.
Mild on water continues till September 28 in Edinburgh. Discover extra on Cass's web site and Instagram.
