HEY CASS

ablutions (i), 2016
Digital video documentation of live performance at Ox-Bow School of Art, Saugatuck, Michigan, USA
Camera: John Lincoln-Vogel and Charlie Arsenault
Lighting: Kimberly Rosencrantz
Production Support: Mina Nieto, Thump Drag, and Josh Turk

2016
Found fabric from the artist’s childhood homes, quilted and appliquéd
Approx. 25 feet x 12 feet

how the Shenandoah Valley felt in the years 1987-1991

a textile installation (2014)

Luray, Virginia is a rural farming community situated in the Shenandoah Valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northwestern Virginia. The area was colonized by European settlers in the 17th century, and in 1831 Page County was formed and Luray was named the county seat. Shortly thereafter the American Civil War took place. Its legacy continues to influence the region politically, economically, and socially. Half a century after the Civil War, the state acquired thousands of tracts of private mountain land (“many of them with unclear titles and uncertain boundaries” [Heatwole]) to establish Shenandoah National Park. Luray currently houses the park headquarters, and tourism remains a notable source of income for Page County.

Artist HEY CASS was born in Harrisonburg, Virginia in 1987, and was raised in nearby Luray until 1991. Repurposing fabric from their childhood house, HEY CASS explores their own fond memories of the natural landscape and a warm, loving home as they coexist with complex realities of generational trauma, marginalized histories, and economic and political intent through the act of quilting. As in much of the American South, mainstream public memory in Page County intentionally ignores the deep violence of slavery, battle, and colonization (by foreign settlers, governments, and corporations) that continues to shape community life. In these textiles sourced primarily from Luray, “country chic” patterns stand as windows into HEY CASS’s memories of a safe, happy home as well as intersecting communal histories of capitalist, industrial, racial, and gender violence.

Examining relationships between simultaneously loving, nostalgic and unsettling senses of truth and home, Sharing the Stories of the Elders uncovers intricate stories of nation and childhood.

This project was made possible by the following wonderful supporters, volunteers, and artist assistants:
Anne + Brian Hamrick
Kimberly Fisher
Laurel Karolczak
Vanessa Luna
Sarah Reagan
Sophia Chu
Lydia Seabrooks
Athena Melton
Cortney Tunstall
Cecelia Iraida
Marisa Halperin
Rachel Huck
Jimmy Chrzan
Leslie Sobel
April Quisisem
Jennifer Choi

2015
Digital video (2m, 25s) accompanied by graphic design on 11”x17” copy paper.
 

2015
Digital photograph documentation of remnant from a live performance in which the artist baked and decorated a batch of sugar cookie portraits that were later gifted to and ingested by their subjects.

2015
Mixed media collage on watercolor paper
Varying sizes approximating 6” x 7”

Exploring limits and liminalities in the workings of a privately funded, inpatient psychiatric hospital in the Midwest.

2015
Watercolor on paper
7"x8"

a workshop by HEY CASS and Kimberly Fisher

social-intervention.tumblr.com

The aim of intervention is (re)creation, to transform a raw object into an idealized object. In social interventions, the object is a “broken” human self that the intervention seeks to repair and make whole. Who guides these creative processes, and to what end? In this two-hour workshop by HEY CASS and Kimberly Fisher, participants explore the concept of intervention as an alchemic process that has rules, standards, is regulated, consumed, and generates value. Examining intervention through both Socially Engaged Art and Public Health lenses, we consider concepts of futurity as pragmatic and imaginative tools to disrupt potentially violent processes of change and transformation. Our discussion is grounded in analysis of case studies that seek to transform “at-risk” subject-objects through sanctioned intervention. Participants are asked to contribute and respond to analysis, then join in collectively imagining modes of emergent counter-practice through dialogue and artmaking. Resulting artwork is displayed, with the artist’s permission, on the workshop website. Our challenge: how can we move intervention toward visions of liberation?

2013
Digital video animations

exhibition proposal by HEY CASS and Deirdre Colgan Jones
2012
Collage and ink on copy paper
8.5”x11”

2013
Quilt created by youth attendees at Frieda’s Place community kitchen (names withheld for privacy) and collaborating artists HEY CASS and Lydia Seabrooks, facilitated by HEY CASS.

2009 (deer season)
Paper documentation of an action
14”x14”

2008
Digital photograph and video documentation of live performance at Oak Allee, Washington University in St. Louis
Digital Photos: Katey Albro Becvar, Pat Breedlove, Ron Fondaw
Video Camera: Katey Albro Becvar, Emily Silber, Katie Seidler, Jessica Rogen, Kelly Diehl, Zoe Hillenmeyer, Merry Sottili, Tolu Fashoro, Gabriel Slavitt
Video Production: HEY CASS
Performance Production Assistance: Emily Silber, Tolu Fashoro, Barrington Lloyd

Video documentation of performance and prop materials exhibited at -isms & -ities, 2009, Edwin Street Warehouse, St. Louis, MO

2009
35mm photograph documentation of cardboard installation and live performance at Des Lee Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri

Sequel to Story of the Farm. Guests were offered a bowl of cardboard vegetable soup (vegetable stock, cinnamon, cumin, paprika, salt, black pepper), cultivated and prepared from scratch by the Farmer. Video documentation of Story of the Farm and of soup preparation were presented next to serving area.

2010-2013
Quilt-by-mail collaboration with Emily Olsen and HEY CASS.
(St. Louis, MO - Angola, IN - Chicago, IL)

2010
India ink, ballpoint pen, coffee, and collage on paper

2010
India ink and collage on paper

2007
sculptures made with grass harvested from the banks of the River Arno in Florence, Italy

2007
experiments in form and function, using grass harvested from the River Arno in Florence, Italy

I am Afraid of Horses. I am Afraid of Being Bitten. (Hip Hip Hippo) by HEY CASS.

Abjection by Veronica Stein.

Collaborative project with Veronica Stein for 2011 Exquisite Corpse show, curated by Jenny Lam.

press:
Artists on the Lam
Gapers Block

2007-08
tonsils, brain, kidney

pages from a handmade book of family recipes and illustrations based on photos of a deceased parent

2011
Pete the dog investigates layers of history and land use in the woods behind a rural Indiana neighborhood.