Collage in Practice Workshop - Meeting 2
The term "mixed media" fails to specify the materials used in creating the artwork.
It is always a good practice to document the source materials of an art piece. This information is extremely beneficial for writers and curators. Additionally, documenting the tools used, such as the type of glue or finish, provides insights into how to maintain the work in the future.
Any documentation is useful on many levels.
Topics of the day
- Collage in theory
- Taxonomy
- Ecosystem
- Possibly Copyright
Collage in Theory
Game: Is it Collage?
- Clue: They are all Collage as per Ric.
- Why is it a collage?
Tie, Allan Bealy
- Instagram profile
- Box unfolded
- It has tridimensionality
Landscape Sublime, Anastasia Samoylova
- Website
- She constructs an installation, creating a life-size scene.
- Upon completion, she captures a photograph. The photography binds all the elements together, and the print itself becomes the artwork.
The New Social Order – Work For All – Art For All, 2016, 45”x66”, Andrea Bowers
- Cardboard
- Acrylic marker on cardboard, employing the visual language of woodblock printing.
- "Mix Media"
Rainbow (for Rose & Licorice) (2007) oil/canvas, 234 X 422 cm, David Elliott
- Website
- A diorama is constructed on a small scale and subsequently painted with oil on a larger canvas.
Pieta, 11.4″x9″, handmade collage: art book and magazines, 2016, David Gorriz
- Kolaj Article
- Analog collage
- Layers on top and behind
Maya's Quilt of Life,1989, Faith Ringgold
- Website
- Quilt
Not able to find the reference. Please contact me if you know.
Artist: Jenny Hampe
- Kolaj article
- I suspect this is her Instagram profile.
- Repurpose of a picture
Ivanhoe, circa 1830, John Thomas Haines
- Wikipedia reference
- Tinsel print: tinsel prints were collectable images of famous actors and actresses produced in nineteenth century England
- Those pictures were mass-produced.
- It is a print with jewels added on top of it.
- Mixing materials.
Dolores James, 1962, John Chamberlain
- Website
- Collage with metal.
- He is in conversation with an abstract expressionist. How to bring it into the 3D dimension.
- He went to visit a friend in Long Island who had many spare car pieces. He added them together by running the car through because he didn't know how to weld.
- Assemblage.
- It can be called many things: painting, collage, assemblage.
Red Tears from “Second Life”, Julia Chernyshova
- Kolaj article
- The red "tears" were glued to the model's face.
- She photographed the model and added things on top of it.
Liquid Pupils, 2014, Justin Angelos
- Kolaj Portfolio
- Analog Collage
My Promise for Your Happiness No.16, 162 x 135 cm, Lin Jing Jing
- Website
- Embroidering paper
- Sky is painted
- Thread to add colour
A Moment’s Pleasure, 2019, Mickalene Thomas
- Website
- Installation.
- Juxtaposition of items and textures.
My Town, Maureen Williams
- Website
- Scanography: Scanography, also spelled Scannography and referred to as Scanner Art or Scanner Photography is the name for a process to create digital images using a flatbed scanner in a way the manufacturer hasn't initially planned.
- Arrange objects on a bed of a scanner and scan them.
- The glue is an act of scanning, the process of bringing the elements together.
- Collage without glue.
Bunny Tea Party, Grand Ole Bestiary
- Photomontage.
- Old Victorian portraits.
- For many people, those pictures were their first experience of surrealism and collage.
- There were people who thought those pictures were actual portraits of real bunny individuals.
- Conan Doyle believed the pictures of fairies were real.
Quilt, Galen Cheney
- Kolaj article
- Galen Cheney is a painter and collage artist.
- For her, the process of producing art is a spiritual meditation.
- Beforehand, she prepares materials.
- Once ready, she enters her studio to emerge 8 or 9 hours later with a completed artwork.
- An artifact of an experience, inviting the viewer to contemplate it.
Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro, Stories & ideas, MCA Australia
- Website
- All the personal belongings of someone who passed were aggregated into a ball.
- Context matter.
Stereo, Jason-Pappas
- Kolaj article
- Assemblage.
- Create a stereo system using an old stove.
1. Try Quit, Tm Gratkowski
2. Paper Crete 36, Tm Gratkowski
- Instagram profile
- Kolaj article
- The artist is in conversation with painting.
- He messes with the idea what is painting or sculpture.
Definition of Collage
Where do we draw the line on what is a collage?
- Everything can be a collage.
- Ric, as an editor and curator, wants to be open to the possibilities. What is interesting is how this is a collage?
- How do we think about collage?
- In which context do we define collage?
- The process to bind the elements is the "glue," regardless of how that comes to happen.
Tate
MoMA
My Modern Met
Coined by cubist artists Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, the term “collage” comes from the French word coller, or “to glue.” The movement itself emerged under this pair of artists, who began working with various mediums to create avant-garde assemblages around 1910.
Collages can be created from a range of materials, though most are made of paper or wood and often feature cut-and-pasted photographs, painted forms, or even 3-dimensional objects. As more and more modern artists began exploring the practice throughout the 20th century, these mediums became more varied and increasingly experimental.
National Galleries Scotland
- There are other art movements related to collage.
Cambridge dictionary
- The children made a collage of postcards.
- Infantilize because children also paint and draw.
Study.com
- Referencing child practice, which is not the same as that of a professional artist.
Landscape Sublime, Anastasia Samoylova
Anastasia creates an experience and invites people to encounter it through a photograph, similar to a photographer capturing images of the Savannah in Africa.
Collage as Medium X Genre
Medium
- Refers to the art materials or artist supplies used to create a work of art, (material)
Genre
- Refers to the type or category of the art or the content of the art (idea)
Benon Lutaaya painted with paper due lack of funds for paint. Medium is collage but the genre is painting.
- What is our medium?
- What is our genre?
Rainbow, 2007, David Elliott
- David's work medium is painting but from the collage genre.
Vortumnus Vertumno, Giuseppe Arcimboldo
- Website
- Always referred to as a painting despite the juxtaposition of elements common in collage.
Remastered Art Bennington 1945 by Anna Mary Robertson Moses aka Grandma Moses
- Wikipedia
- Folk artist.
- Work with uncollage.
- Uncollage: assembling fragments and disguising them so the viewer won't notice the collage aspect of it.
- As collage artists, we are transparent about the sources, unlike what uncollage does.
An Approach to Collage
How to approach collage in this workshop?
- Some sort of material
- Some sort of glue
- Some sort surface
- Material: Materials used.
- Juxtaposition: Conversation between the elements.
- Composition: The arrangement of the elements.
The artistic process of each artist is fascinating, and artists tend to be afraid to share it. We should be proud of it and share the ins and outs.
It is important to practice the language/vocabulary/taxonomy to tell a story that captures the attention of someone, be it writers, curators, or the audience.
Ric demonstrated his work where he used the concept of fragmentation in many different ways using only one picture of a wounded soldier. "How life takes us apart and puts us back together."
Taxonomy
What words can be used to describe the following?
Pair XXVII, 2015, collage, John Stezaker
- Gallery website
- 2-bit collage.
- Minimal collage.
- Stills from films.
- Photo Montage: Ric disagrees because photo montage is done by manipulating different photographic negatives and making a print of it. The process is closely related to darkroom photography.
- Montage: Involves time and motion. Manipulation of time.
Pile on in Pink and Green, Danielle Cole
- Website
- Juxtaposition of legs and cars.
- Explosion, energy, direction. However, those words can mean something different to other people; they might describe it as busy.
- Collection of cars, women.
- Still, no perfect word to describe this kind of work.
My Promise for Your Happiness No.16, 162 x 135 cm, 2012, Lin Jing Jing
- Layering
- Architectural
Note: i am still looking for thet title of it
Artist: JR
- Installation on the border between US and Mexico.
Note: Still looking for the title,
Artist: Stefaan De Croock
- Website
- Made out of wood.
- Juxtaposition with the city
Liquid Pupils, 2014, Justin Angelos
- Layering
A Moment’s Pleasure, 2019, Mickalene Thomas
- Juxtaposition: different materials on the walls. Chairs made of various elements.
- Fragmented world.
Earthlings, Richard Kalvar
- Just a photography using juxtaposition. Not a collage.
Ric's work of deconstructing Picasso is valid under a context because it cannot be recognized when mixed with other non-related pieces.
The exercise of examining the collage ancestors is a practice to observe how the work is being described.
Ecosystem
How does art find its way into the world? How it is shown tells something about the art itself.
Find people who are more successful than you at diffusing and study their strategies.
What needs to be done to fit a particular ecosystem?
White Cube Model
- Creation of New York post 2nd World War.
- Related to the city and its economy, marked by an abundance of empty rectangular industrial spaces.
- Luxury, expansive, and expensive.
- No touching; it is not for you.
Retail Market Model
- Usually, collage is shown like that.
- Before the white cube model, that was a common way to display art.
- It is accessible.
- Able to touch.
Many people don't associate with art because they don't feel it is for them.
Museums
Galeries Dalmau 1912 exhibition, Barcelona, Spain
- Wikipedia
- High-end gallery.
- Retail market model approach.
National Gallery of Canada
- Museums used to be a place for artists, resources for them.
- They used to apply the retail market model but moved to the white cube model.
- Due to a lack of funds and efforts to attract more people to the museum, nowadays, they can be used for weddings or events.
Spectacle
Paintings for the Future, Hilma af Klint
Infinite Variety - Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts
A Subtlety, 2014, Kara Walker
Galleries
- Galleries cannot sell installations.
- They need to know you; it is a long-term relationship.
- Have you been there before?
- Do you know the gallery?
- What is the venue about?
Books
- Books can be sent and shared; they are permanent.
- Illustrations as a form of commission.
- The New York Times uses them often.
Social Media
- Social Media favours motion over still images.
Business
- Selling your art is like any other business, and it requires a business plan.
- A website where you could explore selling art https://www.saatchiart.com
Other Factors
- Tourism.
- Provides an Instagram opportunity.
- Fills the wall space.
- Who does the institution serve?
- Who is the audience?
- People who have lots of material on the market tend to be talked about more.
- Art is a market, so people want to sustain the value of their collections.
- Experiencing art without art in the room.
- Immersive Van Gogh.
- What do you compete with?
- What do you bring to the table?
Sunday, Sitting on the Bank of Butterfly Meadow, Wardell Milan
- Billboard.
- Commissioned by the park to encourage the participation of black community to visit the park. They belong here.
Collage Art
- Usually small.
- How to fill the wall?
- Make lots of them.
- Scale it.
- Project it: Mark Murphy
- How to transform your practice to suit the space?
- What other elements can be added to complement it?
- Adding a dinner table.
Series
What constitutes a series? How do we contextualize a series?
- Think about it as a project.
- Creating multiple works that are correlated.
- Filling a small room in a gallery.
- Where might the work go?
- What art ecosystem are they intended for?
Take away
As you think about your practice, what are your goals, and where do you want to be? What are the steps to get there?
These questions (the diffusion) are relevant during the making process.
Observe the ecosystem and figure out what needs to be done to communicate effectively with it.
- Do they use frames?
- What are the sizes?
- What kind of art is displayed?
- What kind of materials are used?