COLLECTIVISING THE COLLAGE
COLLAGE WEEK 2019
The art of Collage is collecting, collating and corresponding a set of images/visuals to make an entirely new composition. The artist does this to create meaning from images that already exist, it is to make sense of those images in a way that is personal to the artist. Collage can't be considered a puzzle or a jig-saw, it is the reinventing of visuals producing a new set of results. This is our second version since founding COLLAGE WEEK, and this year we show how varied Collage as a medium will be.
1
2
3
Each artist started with the same three images developed by our team; the Beyond Photography logo, two dripping flowers, and the girl on the box. Every artist who participated were able to work these images how they felt most appropriate, and could include any other elements they wished. The results were widely varied. View the image gallery here.
“Collage is the noble conquest of the irrational, the coupling of two realities, irreconcilable in appearance, upon a plane which apparently does not suit them” - Max Ernst
by Ryan Blackwell
by KOYWEKOLLAGE
Creatives across all art forms have created collage; it is a strong method of collating abstract ideas and thoughts into a medium which is often used as part of the process in making art (such as sculpture, abstract painting etc.) but in many cases the collage is the final piece.
Beyond Photography concerns itself with anything that may appropriate and challenge photography, using additional processes which take the photograph literally “Beyond Photography”. Collage seemingly sits alongside photography in the art world. After all it was one of the initial process of what we now call retouching or experimental/post-photography. The idea is to take seemingly random subjects, place them randomly until you find something comfortable and a new image is created. But Collage shouldn’t be mistaken as some kind of apophenia; rather the artist is searching, looking for different elements that can emote what is in the collagists head.
by The-Scissor-Hands
The idea for this COLLAGE WEEK, was to have all the artists start with the same visual queues, and look at the variety of the images produced. It's something rarely looked at in Collage but regularly looked at in other mediums such as drawing or photography.
Take life drawing for example. In a room of 12 artists all depict the same model or subject, and we will see 12 different results. This is because the artists are viewing the subject from different angles, have different techniques and skill level, but alongside this, the artists all view the same focus point in different ways. We understand a lot about our society, our world, and our consciousness from this one example.
In a medium known to be as old as 200 B.C, collage tells us the same story, when provided with the same visual stimulus, artists produce vastly different outcomes based on their choice of utensils. Are they using video, paper, photoshop? What images do they wish to add to the reference provided? What colour palette? What size print? Are they making use of other mediums such as paint, graphic design, or screen print? From this we can see that collage is an extremely freeing medium. We hope that you will enjoy the pieces in our collaboration for collage week!
by Kubi Vasak
Collage is more than a single medium. Artists such as Picasso, Hoch and Braque used collage but added additional mediums such as paint or graphic design. Artists like Kensuke Koike even took Collage to sculpture and video. The art form comes in many varieties and is changing in the digital age.
We would like to thank the artists that took part in COLLAGE WEEK; Sarah Kamp, KOYWEKOLLAGE, The-Scissor-Hands, Harriet Moutsopoulos, Kubi Vasak, and Samantha Wong.