B.

CASS

Behind the scenes

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.

Rata Lovell-Smith Hawkins 1933. Oil on canvas board. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 1981

Rata Lovell-Smith Hawkins 1933. Oil on canvas board. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 1981

I remember my first visit to Cass sometime in the late 1980s after a tramp to the main divide and back via the Mingha - Deception. New Zealand's most famous railway station was painted white then and I see that it was also white when Julian visited in 1986. I'm guessing Rita's painting had something to do with returning the shed back to ochre red and it's interesting to note that the railway station in Rata Lovell-Smith's painting Hawkins was also painted red back in 1933.

André Hemer CASS 2012

André Hemer CASS 2012

For me, the highlight of the exhibition is André's spray-painted interpretation / intervention of Rita Angus's painting Cass. And so with all this focus on Cass brought about by André's exhibition it was entirely appropriate that Julian Dashper's diptych Cass, recently acquired for the Gallery's permanent collection, arrived here last week.

Julian Dashper Cass 1986. Silver gelatin photograph and pastel on paper. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 2012.

Julian Dashper Cass 1986. Silver gelatin photograph and pastel on paper. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 2012.