Collage: Part one

In a world that produces vast quantities of waste perhaps one of the best ways to deal with the issue is to work in collage. This has several advantages.
The first is that whatever you do it will have a direct relationship with the world. Whether you are going to make figurative narratives from the materials you select or abstract compositions, in either case the materials themselves will carry part of the work's meaning for you.
The second advantage you automatically have when using collage is that the materials begin to suggest ideas as you move them around and into new conjunctions with each other. There will be moments when individual elements 'fit' with each other and the more collages you make the more you become 'attuned' to what fits and what doesn't.
John Stezaker's collages are a case in point. He keeps large image files and when he is working tries out image after image, looking for that perfect fit. When it works his images feel as if they have simply 'arrived', the juxtaposition looks as if the elements were made for each other.  By choosing photographic imagery of faded movie stars he is able to question how the photograph can work as a documentation of truth, holder of memory, and symbol of modern culture, all at the same time. In his Marriage series he uses publicity shots of old film stars, often overlapping them to make hybrids of male and female characters. By using old photographs we are reminded of how photographs are stylised, the further away in time from the present the more their making is revealed as a series of choices and not a simple indexical record.

John Stezaker: From the Marriage series

The 'fit' between male and female movie stars above is very astute, the chins line up and so do the eyes and hair lines, the particular lighting in both is characteristic of studio star photographs, therefore they tonally fit and by having these two characters join to form a horizontal image, we are given a suggestion that they are lying down, in a state of 'revere' or 'daydream', perhaps each character dreaming of the other. Both of course are manufactured by the Hollywood machine, the 'theatre of dreams'. The other issue about the above image is that Stezaker simply cuts one image straight through and places it on top of the other and we can see clearly the misalignment of the two photographs because the white borders show where the images overlap. He clearly wants us to remember this is a collage and that we should not be seduced into it being anything else but that.

Kurt Schwitters



After its early introduction in the Cubist work of Picasso and Braque, two figures dominate the early history of collage and to some extent they also set out the two main directions in which it will become used. Kurt Schwitters used to carry a suitcase around with him so that he could collect street detritus; ticket stubs, discarded papers, scraps of cardboard etc. and with these constructed what he called his 'Merz'. He wanted to both create connections with and celebrate the connections between all the various things in the world. However the underlying principle around which he did this was the formal play of abstract composition. He would bring his various collage elements together using structuralist principles and paved the way for the use of collage as a method of building abstractions. Max Ernst took a much more figurative approach, using collage's potential to release unexpected imagery and as a heightened form of imaginative play.

Max Ernst

Both these artists had an enormous influence on the development of collage as a genre, it could be argued that they stand for the two central planks of modernism, abstraction and Surrealism.
Collage has a simple way of constantly refreshing itself. Because society's waste materials are constantly changing as the relentless march of consumerism produces more and more goods, every generation of artists using collage is faced with materials which reflect the particular moment they live through. A classic example is Rauschenberg, the imagery for his Dante's Inferno prints is located firmly in the 1960s.

Strangely enough, several collage artists have resorted to using already dated imagery in their work. Stezaker in using old movie stills and Ernst himself in using old Victorian illustrations. This is perhaps indicative that many collage artists are also collectors and lovers of memorabilia. There is also an issue of how nostalgia gives renewed meaning to things. An ordinary cigarette package when seen again 20 years later tells a story of the 'design of the times'.

It was Rauschenberg who termed the word 'assemblage', which indicated a point whereby the objects collaged into art pieces were becoming larger and more three dimensional, the line between drawing (collage) and sculpture (assemblage) being somewhat blurred and always seeking definition. For instance Sarah Sze's 3D installations are clearly linked together by linear relationships and they stem from her interest in drawing.

Sarah Sze

Hew Locke is another artist that I would categorise as someone who thinks through drawing, but as an image maker, rather than a formalist.

Hew Locke, Jungle Queen II, 2003

Hew Locke makes his assemblages of the Queen out of thousands of plastic toys, flowers, fruits etc. but the underlying image could be the flat 2D image of a postage stamp. There is an interesting video of him talking about his work here.

The line between sculpture and drawing is very fine and installations often tread right on the border. For instance this collage on sticks (below) by Geoffrey Farmer uses the one sidedness of drawing and flat imagery to his advantage, which also gains presence from the fact that a virtual forest of wooden staves is used to hold the imagery in place.

  Farmer's work also reminds us of the importance of presentation and how when given a certain type of space to exhibit in you sometimes have to be very inventive in how you think about audience engagement. In this case he has used a corridor space really well.

Finally, there are artists such as Mark Lewis that bring together traditional drawing techniques with collage. He makes graphite surfaces and drawn elements that he then cuts up and reassembles. In this way he can have the control over his materials that a traditional artist has and also benefit from the ability of collage working to allow him to 'find' a composition that suits the dynamic he is looking for. The shaped edges of his works are a natural consequence of the working process.  

Mark Lewis: Graphite and paper collage

Collage and its cousin assemblage, are ways of working that didn't exist before the 20th century, so they could be regarded as 'the' modes of expression that are particular to our times of Capitalist mass production. There are always new approaches to working with found materials and as I stated at the beginning of this post by using waste materials to make your work, you begin the process of also commenting on the state of a society that produces so much.

If you want to read more about this a good start is; The Age of Collage: Contemporary Collage in Modern Art  by Krohn, Busch and Hellige

This post on collage also overlaps somewhat with some of the comments made in an earlier post about drawing on top of photographs and the work of Robert Rauschenberg.                               


See also:
Collage part two
Collage part three
Collage part four

Collage and copyright law

The torn edge in collage

Drawing on Photographs

The prevalence of large-scale digital printers and the, (in comparison), lower printing costs of large scale images on good quality paper, has seen a rapid rise in drawings on top of photographic imagery. This practice has a particular history; you could trace the combination of drawing and photographic collage back to early cubist collages and the fascinating issue of how artists deal with bits of reality within an image stems from that time.

Picasso

Gris

The issue is one of separation and combination. A piece of collage exists both as a slice or piece of the ‘real’ world and as a formal element within an image. For instance Gris uses actual pieces of material from decorative surfaces, and then integrates drawing onto their surfaces. A mark or line exists as a physical thing made of chalk or graphite or paint, but it also operates as a conceptual idea. For instance a drawn line can represent something else, it operates metaphorically; the artist could draw an image of a beer bottle label as a representation, or the artist could stick a real beer bottle label into the image, in which case it represents itself. It operates as a slice of reality within and amongst a representation of reality. A photograph operates within a similar territory and of course many of our collage materials have photographs embedded within them. Newspapers, magazines, product wrappings and advertising flyers all rely on a photographic ‘texture’ to provide verification for their contents. Rauschenberg was particularly adept at playing with this duality when using image transfer techniques. (see earlier post) He is able to lock his mark making techniques into the way he transfers images, pencil rubbings directly removing print surfaces onto paper, silk screen print applying paint to canvas within a photographic format, the image now made of paint is thus transferred into the language of gestural marks.

Rauschenberg 

There is both an intellectual tension and an emotional friction here. For instance, Plato complained about artists creating false illusions, using trickery to deceive the public. Both photography and collage it could be argued break that illusion. A photograph has a ‘direct’ correlation with reality, (this is why you can only use a photographic image of yourself on your passport), and collage elements are of course taken directly out of the ‘real’ world. One passes smoothly into the other, a photographic print could be both exhibited as art and/or found on the floor as yet another discarded piece of paper based rubbish. The issue begins to develop a further complexity when the writings of Greenberg are added into the mix. Greenberg argued that any form of illusion in painting was in effect working against the specificity of the medium. Artists therefore, he argued should be only looking at paint's qualities of surface effect and colour to develop meaning, not seeking to represent reality. Abstract Expressionism, the movement particularly associated with his ideas, concentrated on separating out painting's representational ability from its physical properties. Photography   replacing painting as the only legitimate tool for making representations of the visual world. 

So what happens when you use a photograph as a surface to draw on? Both languages are read at the same time, one is though operating as a ground, (the photograph), the other as ‘the mark', however a mark laid on top of a photograph defiles or damages the image, and establishes another reality, the language of mark and gesture. Photographic languages tend to operate as if the photograph is a form of verification, but as to its deeper semiotic meaning, it is often a free floating signifier, just as any real object in the world awaits our giving it a use value, the mark or drawn text provides an additional emotional or annotational signifier that can be used to 'anchor' a photograph's meaning. What we seek is closure, which can be thought of as the glue holding these different elements together. It’s about the human tendency to seek and find patterns, and to apply meaning to these patterns. In psychology we would call this gestalt theory. The key to closure is providing enough information so the eye/brain can fill in the rest. If too much is missing, the elements will be seen as separate parts instead of a whole. If too much information is provided, there’s no need for closure to occur.

Typical of the images that deal with these issues are the gestural marks on photographs in the work of Huma Bhabha. The scale is typical of images printed using a digital laser printer such as the ones we now have in college, these images are about 6 feet high; human sized. In her re-worked photographs, taken by Bhabha in her native Karachi in southern Pakistan, the artist undermines the documentary tradition of the photograph with a darker, personal vision that is carried by the gestural marks applied across the surface. The photographic document is obliterated or defiled, in effect graffitied over. 

 Huma Bhabha

An artist that makes a powerful drama out of the conjunction of the photograph and drawing on its surface is Arnulf Rainer. He keeps a fine balance between the photograph as document and marks as signs of emotion. The tradition of Expressionism taken to its logical conclusion by separating out and yet at the same time joining the emotive image and the emotive mark.

Arnulf Rainer: After Messerschmidt. “Der Heftige Geruch” – “The Strong Smell”

Arnulf Rainer

Arnulf Rainer

Rainer's images derive their psychological power from the visual reinforcement that operates between gestural mark and the underlying image. Lines extend or emphasise what is in the underlying image and because the subjects appear to be in heightened states of emotion, we read the marks as a type of nervous graphology, as if the subjects of these photographs were able to defile their own images, the marks 'interpreting' the photographs below. 

In an analogous way to Rainer, Maurizio Anzeri makes his portraits by sewing directly into found vintage photographs. His embroidered patterns garnish the figures like elaborate costumes, but also suggest a psychological aura, as if revealing the person’s thoughts or feelings. The antique appearance of the photographs is often at odds with the sharp lines and silky shimmer of the threads. The combined media can suggest a dimension where history and future converge. Separation and combination again giving rise to a powerful new form. 

Maurizio Anzeri 

Because of a photograph's indexical relationship with the world, the distinction between image and reality has been blurred. By adding a further mark made layer we further conflict the distinction and it could be argued now open a portal into a new semiotic dimension. 

The complexity of these issues suggests that there is much to pursue here and I would suggest that there is still considerably more milage in the area. 

See also:

Touch: Photography and frottage

Drawing with light

Drawing from photographs

Rauschenberg: Dante’s Inferno

Rauschenberg: Print made from the original 'Dante's Inferno' solvent transfer drawing. 1964

In my previous post I pointed to the fact that Rauschenberg was seen as one of the most influential artists on the 'Pop Art' generation of image makers. I was educated in art college during the late '60s and early 70's and together with Jasper Johns the two of them tended to hold an almost hypnotic hold over what was and was not interesting artwork. Johns holding court over what was then known as conceptual art and Rauschenberg over the new 'dematerialisation of the art object'. However looking back as a much older artist I tend to see them both within a much longer tradition of Western art practices that stretches back over a long long time, their innovations now appearing to be part of an ongoing tradition of always testing out the boundaries of a language in order to make sure it is fit for purpose and capable of carrying the complex narratives of the day. Botticelli's visions of the 'Inferno' relying on new Renaissance spatial representations to give them conviction, Rauschenberg on a method that made full use of the fact that our society provides so many images of itself that they in effect become 'throw-away'.

Both images above from Botticelli: Dante's 'Inferno'

Rauschenberg: Dante's Inferno

Started in 1959 and finished in 1961 these are probably the most powerful and profound of Rauschenberg’s drawings.

Rauschenberg treats our media soaked world as being an equivalent to Dante’s vision of Hell. Like many artists he is attracted by Dante’s structural vision, a coupling of an archetypal vision of the dammed with details of contemporary Italian life in the 14^th century. 

Many artists face the same dilemma, how to use contemporary techniques, processes and attitudes to art making in such a way that they can still tackle the grand historical themes of art history. If you can find a way to do this you can then set your stall out alongside artists of the past and see if you measure up.

Rauschenberg: dante's Inferno

Rauschenberg’s solvent transfer drawings show us the horrors of the underworld in images that draw from many sources and use an all over, de-centered compositional process drawn from Abstract Expressionism. The all-over arrangements of forms and events in certain drawings can seem very ''post-Pollock,'' yet they can also call forth the continuous tumult of Michelangelo's ''Last Judgment'' or a painting by Hieronymus Bosch.

Michelangelo's ''Last Judgment'' detail

Making one drawing per canto, Rauschenberg meticulously constructed the Inferno's visual equivalent using media images from his own time.

Rauschenberg's hell is populated by gas-masked National Guardsmen, weight lifters, astronauts, jockeys and men in dark suits. It includes an entrance gate that has a welcome sign, racing cars that speed out of control, modern landscapes of city buildings and athletes, many of which seem to be running for their lives.

Dante appears in nearly half the drawings as the man standing against a tile wall wearing white swimming trunks. He stands at attention as if he is awaiting an army physical or is about to take a dive. This he does quite dramatically in ''Canto II: The Descent,'' an indication of Rauschenberg's precise attention to Dante's text.

''Canto II: The Descent'' 

If you have a copy of Dante’s ‘Inferno’ you can use it go through each drawing and make a careful and detailed reading, when you do the relationship between titles and images suggests that everything is there for a reason. For example in ‘The punishment of the Simoniacs’ ''Canto XIX'', for selling holy offices they were stuck upside down in the ground with the soles of their feet exposed and on fire - and Rauschenberg gives us exactly that.

Rauschenberg: The punishment of the Simoniacs’ ''Canto XIX''

He also makes adjustments. For ''Canto XIV: Circle Seven, Round 3, The Violent Against God, Nature and Art,'' whose fate it is to wander eternally on burning sand rained down upon by fire, Rauschenberg depicts a yellow ground dotted all over with tiny, agitated figures. Above he outlines what are probably his own toes in red crayon, spelling out the Simoniacs' agony in relatively huge scale via a ''hot foot'' that overlooks the scene like a billboard at the beach.

 The solvent transfer technique turned out to be the perfect vehicle by which to retell Dante's horrific journey through hell, at the same time turning it into a modern allegory. In some cases the blurring of the drawing strokes gives these surfaces a dank, smoky atmosphere, in others, the images seem nearly buried in a blizzard of marks that increase as Dante, with the viewer in tow, approaches the Ninth Circle, the place where hell freezes over.

Rauschenberg: Dante's Inferno

But above all, the drawing strokes are the graphic equivalent of a strobe light; they make the images flicker in and out of view, keeping everything in constant motion and creating the effect of seeing an old movie-house newsreel condensed onto a progression of exquisite single surfaces. This also creates an effect rather like watching our collective lives pass before our eyes.

For an on line copy of all Dante's text see: Dante's Inferno. 

For how to use image transfer processes see: ITPs

Dore: From 'Dante's Inferno"

See also:

Collage 1
Collage 2
Collage 3
Collage 4
Collage 5

Diagrams of the Inferno