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Sketches after Cimabue
Fablon on paper, mirror. 2008
From his interest in perspective, Cass has found Renaissance images such as Cimabue’s frescoes in the Chapel of St Francis in Assisi fascinating. In c1280 Cimabue depicted the destinations of the Evangelists as largely imaginary cities; attempting to use a realistic sense of space to depict far away places.
Leeds is now imagining and developing a new city, redeveloping areas such as Holbeck, the centre of Leeds’ early textile trade. St Francis came from a textile family and Holbeck itself has architectural elements inspired by the buildings of Italy. For the Separations exhibition in Holbeck, Cass felt it entirely appropriate to take inspiration from Italy, creating a chapel like installation with his own versions of Cimabue’s cities, suggesting not only a complex historical and global context to Leeds’ perception of itself, but also exploring the physical and emotional relationship we have with the spaces we inhabit.
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