Thursday, September 23, 2010

Idea - Collage

Collage: noun. (1) an artistic composition made of various materials (as paper, cloth, or wood) glued on a surface. (2) a creative work that resembles such a composition in incorporating various materials or elements. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)


-Copeland, Roger. "Merce Cunningham and the Aesthetic of Collage." TDR 46.1 (2002): 11-28. JSTOR. Web. 23 Sept. 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1146942>.
-Copeland, Roger. "Cunningham, Collage, and the Computer." PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art 21.3 (1999): 42-54. JSTOR. Web. 23 Sept. 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3245965>.

“In sum, the collage is an awkward amalgam of three unresolved elements (1) purely worldly elements, especially such fragments of dailiness as newspapers; (2) purely artistic elements such as line, color, and shape – the typical constituents of form, and (3) mixed or impure elements, or residual images of an imitated nature, ranging from the famous imitation wood grain and chair caning to traces of such domestic objects as clay pipes and such studio props as guitars…The elements are already “relative” by reason of their displacement from the life-world into the “art world,” and by reason of their fragmentary state…They are an experiment in time and space – which shows that the old idea of Modern art as an experiment concerned with articulating the fourth dimension has, for all its charming naiveté, a certain truth to it.”
-Donald Kuspit quoted in Copeland, Roger. "Merce Cunningham and the Aesthetic of Collage." TDR 46.1 (2002): 11-28. JSTOR. Web. 23 Sept. 2010.

“Within the universe of collage, seemingly unrelated elements begin to “resonate” off one another – across gaps of both space and time – resulting in protean, unstable, and wholly provisional relationships.” 
-Copeland, Roger. "Merce Cunningham and the Aesthetic of Collage." TDR 46.1 (2002): 11-28. JSTOR. Web. 23 Sept. 2010.

“Collage appeals to an age that has come to distrust claims of “unity” and fixed boundaries.”
-Copeland, Roger. "Cunningham, Collage, and the Computer." PAJ: A Journal of
     Performance and Art 21.3 (1999): 42-54. JSTOR. Web. 23 Sept. 2010.

The above quotes are taken from two articles, both centered around the idea of collage related to Merce Cunningham, an American dancer and choreographer who stretches the boundaries of the uses of the word collage.  The article "Merce Cunningham and the Aesthetic of Collage" includes input from various artists and writers, such as Susan Sontag and Max Ernst.  Sontag describes the modern city as a collage, and Ernst  defines collage as "the meeting of two distance realities on a place foreign to them both."  (Merce Cunningham and the Aesthetic of Collage, pg 14) This definition moves me the most.  By using the medium of collage, perhaps I can cancel out feeling uncomfortable about discovering the past because I will be bringing it to a level that has not yet been reached.  I can define that level, and how I want things to work and flow together.  I have control over presenting my past.  The unknown can stay unknown or I can present it as something that it was, or something that I may want it to be.  This idea is very freeing to me.  There are plenty of artists who have worked with the idea of collage, yet Derek Gores' images stand out to me at the moment.  They define their subjects with other symbols, words, shapes, colors, etc, yet there is still emotion and connection coming from the subject alone.

The following images are by Derek Gores:



"Derek has gained national attention for his collage portrait series, recycling magazines, labels, and found materials to create the works on canvas. The series showcases Gores’ contrasting interests in the natural beauty of the figure, the angular design aesthetics of fashion (and machinery), and a fearless sense of play."
 http://www.artistaday.com/?p=4493




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