A Native Fragment, 2017
Rodrigo Cass
Photo: Ernesto Monsalve | Courtesy Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel
Collection
C-Print with concrete intervention
123.8 x 138 x 6 cm (framed)
A Native Fragment (2017) is a work by Rodrigo Cass comprising a photograph of the rainforest manipulated by a series of concrete interventions. These interventions, present throughout contemporaneous paintings by the artist, consist of narrow lines that mark disconnected routes and patterns across the surface of his works. Where in other works these marks are abstract, in A Native Fragment their form is derived from the branches which lie in the image beneath. A word deposited at the bottom of the work reads ABSTRAHERE.
The relation between natural and manmade phenomena which characterizes this work reflects Cass’s concern with questions which underpinned debates in the Brazilian art scene in the mid-twentieth century. In particular, the contrast between his photographic subject matter and concrete additions parallels the tension between the Concretes’ commitment to pure rationalism, and the Neo-Concretes’ rejection of their consideration of form, and art in general, as disconnected from “the living and indeterminate experience of man,” and other kinds of organic living matter.[1] Cass collapses references to both these positions in his work, complicating the relation between the two by denying their mutual exclusivity.
Cass’s own conceptual framework lies in his unique reflections on abstraction, which he develops by returning to the meaning of its Latin root, abstrahere. As he says, we commonly believe that “what is not abstract is concrete, physical, manifest, Lucent, known, evident, etc…, thus it appears easier to believe in what is not abstract, but no. These concepts intersect all the time and are mixed together in my work where everything seems concrete and at the same time abstract.” He continues, “for me, abstraction is much closer to the Latin word from which it originates… Its meaning is to synthesize, isolate, all part of the act of choosing. Thus, a conscious choice is a state of abstraction, as you need to renounce, abstrahere, many other things in favor of one or a few. We are at all times abstrahere, renouncing, choosing and experimenting.”[2] A Native Fragment demonstrates his position, blending sources, material and media to complicate and extend thinking which occurred between artists in the 20th century into the 21st. –Elsa Gray
[1] Ferreira Gullar, Neo-Concrete Manifesto, 1959.
[2] Quoted from an interview with the artist. June 2015. Available at https://www.conceptualfinearts.com/cfa/2015/05/27/qa-with-rodrigo-cass/
123.8 x 138 x 6 cm (framed)
A Native Fragment (2017) is a work by Rodrigo Cass comprising a photograph of the rainforest manipulated by a series of concrete interventions. These interventions, present throughout contemporaneous paintings by the artist, consist of narrow lines that mark disconnected routes and patterns across the surface of his works. Where in other works these marks are abstract, in A Native Fragment their form is derived from the branches which lie in the image beneath. A word deposited at the bottom of the work reads ABSTRAHERE.
The relation between natural and manmade phenomena which characterizes this work reflects Cass’s concern with questions which underpinned debates in the Brazilian art scene in the mid-twentieth century. In particular, the contrast between his photographic subject matter and concrete additions parallels the tension between the Concretes’ commitment to pure rationalism, and the Neo-Concretes’ rejection of their consideration of form, and art in general, as disconnected from “the living and indeterminate experience of man,” and other kinds of organic living matter.[1] Cass collapses references to both these positions in his work, complicating the relation between the two by denying their mutual exclusivity.
Cass’s own conceptual framework lies in his unique reflections on abstraction, which he develops by returning to the meaning of its Latin root, abstrahere. As he says, we commonly believe that “what is not abstract is concrete, physical, manifest, Lucent, known, evident, etc…, thus it appears easier to believe in what is not abstract, but no. These concepts intersect all the time and are mixed together in my work where everything seems concrete and at the same time abstract.” He continues, “for me, abstraction is much closer to the Latin word from which it originates… Its meaning is to synthesize, isolate, all part of the act of choosing. Thus, a conscious choice is a state of abstraction, as you need to renounce, abstrahere, many other things in favor of one or a few. We are at all times abstrahere, renouncing, choosing and experimenting.”[2] A Native Fragment demonstrates his position, blending sources, material and media to complicate and extend thinking which occurred between artists in the 20th century into the 21st. –Elsa Gray
[1] Ferreira Gullar, Neo-Concrete Manifesto, 1959.
[2] Quoted from an interview with the artist. June 2015. Available at https://www.conceptualfinearts.com/cfa/2015/05/27/qa-with-rodrigo-cass/