John Stezaker influences

Off to see the  John Stezaker at Whitechapel Gallery show tomorrow, Ahead of this thought I would put together a quick collage in the style of his 'Marriage' series. I really like Stezaker's work, his image juxtapositions and alignments and the visual humour. However I find some of the hype being written and talked about his work leading up to this show is a bit over the top:

…”In his Marriage series, Stezaker focuses on the concept of portraiture, both as art historical genre and public identity…In his correlated images, personalities (and our idealisations of them) become ancillary and empty, rendered abject through their magnified flaws and struggle for visual dominance….Placed in contemporary context, his portraits retain their aura of glamour, whilst simultaneously operating as exotic ‘artefacts’ of an obsolete culture”… selection from Saatchi Gallery pre show write up.

Was he thinking this or even considering this when he made these collages? I don't think so.  I think he was just concentrating on the image juxtapositions, balances and the 'new' quality of the altered outcome. Once I have seen the exhibition I may write to him and ask him what he thinks! He can only tell me to piss off!

Beauty and the Beast

Some new collage

Only barely settling in to the new semester. Its taken a while to get started with my own work. I have been producing some starting points for a series of A2 folded books following on from the last semester; more on these later.

For now I have been building a series of small collages from some old ephemera that I have acquired by various means. Whilst still focussing very clearly on the balance and juxtaposition of elements in these works (a key interest) I am  seeking to investigate the qualities that 'old' ephemera brings to the medium of collage. For me, the aged quality of the media brings both a sense of 'feel' (ie the handling qualities of the materials) for the building of the subsequent image, and affects the aesthetic appearance for the viewer. Additionally, does the inclusion of an image suggest any narrative to the viewer? These images here are not chosen as such, only for their visual and perhaps 'period' quality. It is said that we are all 'children of our own time'. Perhaps this affects the reading of certain visual images. I have a particular interest in imagery of the 50's, however, the limited imagery in this collection of collages suggests maybe, 'time travelled', but much of it is from a period before 'my time'.

I made these collages with a few rules: no more than say, five elements per collage, the inclusion of an image, some aged ephemera and a postage stamp. (A bag of old stamps - which I assume have no individual value!- was given to me by a friend and some of these were interesting 'aged' images mixed with, in some cases, a bold 'franking' mark).

Engine

 French Beauty

How

Italia

Jefferson

Motoring

Red Cloud

Service

Square Dance

Tuba

Delta

Districts

New Semester Research

Sarah Fishburn
Sarah Fishburn
Karl Waldmann
Karl Waldmann
Hoc Littmann
Hoc Littmann
Hoc Littmann
Eva Lake
Eva Lake
Dick Allowatt
Dick Allowatt
A new semester and some fresh research. How are other practitioners using found ephemera in their work? How does their work develop from these found and organised items. I have included a few of my recent finds here.

The collage and assemblage of Dick Allowatt is inspiring: "Most of my life has been devoted to making art, with over 30 years as a graphic designer and creative director. For the past several years, I have been creating mixed media artwork. I love working with my collection of found objects and vintage books, discovering relationships for incongruent materials and images. I bring these elements together to evoke mystery, fantasy, humor, or to simply create a pleasing arrangement with no hidden meaning, preferring to leave the interpretation of the results up to the viewer. For me, the thrill is in the unpredictable journey and the surprise destination"

Eva Lake from Portland Oregon makes photo montage and paintings which bring together abstract colour and period image - some nice pieces here.

Hoc Littmann www.monotypia.de works with mono printing to create well balanced mixed media pieces using diagrams and other illustrations to overprint.

Karl Waldmann: Photo montage and collage produced until 1958.

Very little is known about his life but he has been compared with Schwitters, Hoch, Heartfield, Moholy Nagy, to name but a few

"Probably born in the penultimate decade of the 19th century in Dresden, Karl Waldmann apparently died around 1958 in a USSR labour camp. He is one of constructivism's last discoveries and most certainly a very important one"

Sarah Fishburn says about herself: "an internationally known artist, who currently describes her work as Mixed-Media Narrative. Her work combines photo montage and collage amongst other media. There are some similarities here to the work of Michelle Caplan and Sarah Hanson. Layers of image and texture and an illuatrative feel.