text 1: Collage – the artform that conquered the world
text 1: collaget – konstformen som erövrade vörlden - svensk version
text 2: Collage put into practise
text 2: Collaget i praktiken – svensk version

Collage – the artform that conquered the world

The text in Swedish © Edvard Derkert

The collage work is ever present, despite the fact that I haven't touched one in years, in the structure of thinking. Ben Nicholson

Is the collage merely an artistic technique or is it a cognitive modus, a way of thinking? Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase "the media is the message" by which he meant that every media from the written language to the computer influences our way of thinking and the way we see ourselves and perceive the world. Man forms his tool and his tools form man. What is the message of the collage? How does the collage change our thinking and our environment. Are we all collagists whether we like it or not?

In a culture where eclecticism is the norm, in which reality becomes a collage of logically materially incompatible texts, it would seem to follow that collage inside the artwork would be reduced to merely mimicking the general cultural condition to which it now belonged.
Brandon Taylor Collage, the making of the 2o:the century of art, page 208

Think of how we write today; very often on the computer and with a word processing program like Microsoft Word where we use the collage like commands “copy” and “paste” in the writing process. We no longer need to plan our writing in long structured thought lines. We can start with a vague idea and work in a “trial and error” fashion. The ideas pop up, unfold and get tried and tested in the very writing process; we cut, copy and paste, we move words, move blocks of text around. We print the text, evaluate it and reevaluate it. We are helped with the spelling and the layout structure of the page. We also have the virtual library of the internet from which we can borrow, steal or copy whatever we fancy. It’s apparent that the computer has changed our way or writing, but has it changed our way of thinking and our world view? I think most would agree that this is the case, at least to a certain degree. But what about the collage? Is it really meaningful to compare a Word document to a collage?

Where are the scissors? Where is the glue? you probably ask. The word collage is derived from the French word colle which means nothing else but glue. But it’s not the glue that makes the collage, as the artist Max Ernst puts it – it is the very open ended “collage practice” that gives us the possibility to put together words and pictures in new and surprising combinations; in the way we can manipulate the parts; to what degree we can arrange and rearrange words and pictures in a non linear and non hierarchical fashion. The word processing program gives us a “hands on” approach to text production where new combinations can emerge because we, at least partly, do not only write but manipulate the text in a collage like manner.

You can introduce the unpredictable spontaneous factor with a pair of scissors. William Burroughs The third mind, page29

But Word or for that matter programs like Photoshop do not automatically produce dadaistic works of art. Or art at all for that matter! And that also holds true when working with scissors, paper and glue. When we say that we cut and paste on the computer we use the words metaphorically – we don’t actually use knife or glue, but the commands correspond to the collage practice.

Long before giant laboratory computers turned into the much smaller PCs, William Burroughs and Bryon Gysin thought about how the collage idea could also be used as a tool for writers. They called their method Cut-up.The idea was quite simply to cut up the text in smaller parts and then randomly put these together again so that new and surprising combinations could emerge. According to Burroughs the best texts were more or less produced accidentally and all texts were more or less Cut-ups anyway; text collages made up from what the writer had read or heard. The cut-up method just rendered the practice explicit. The Cut-up was a way of inviting chance and coincidence into the practice of writing. You can not force spontaneity. But you can introduce the unpredictable, spontaneous factor with a pair of scissors, or with a computer. Of course there are computer programs for cut-up operations. For example Cut and Mix, a program made to help writers “generate new ideas through the use of different methods of text randomization and manipulation.” (4)

Cut and paste is the perfect analogy which helps us to handle digital information and it is nowadays “natural” and more or less goes without saying. The collage metaphor was so practical that it was introduced in all programs whatever kind of information they were supposed to work with. Before the collage was rediscovered by George Braque and Pablo Picasso in the early twentieth century it already existed as a practice and as a concept in its own right. The basic collage principle is that it enables the artist to take giant steps crossing different fields, dissimilar areas, heterogeneous categories and to find similarities and connections between disparate phenomena. Or, in a reverse modus, to make differences visible that have traditionally been bundled up in one category. This can also be seen in the way we use language in a collage like approach in puns and metaphors.

By its ability to combine different words and images, the pun transgresses all forms and definitions but at the same time fusing them into an explosive synthesis, a momentary multitude of disciplines and perspectives. Jonas J Magnusson, Cecilia Grönberg Geist 11,12, 14, page 141

The collage principle so thoroughly permeates our culture that it is hardly recognized anymore; like metaphors that are successful enough to get integrated into everyday language and thus become part of our way of thinking. As long as a metaphor is new, we notice it as such and as long as it is striking it will be accepted and incorporated into the language like any other word or phrase. Our language is full of these so called dead metaphors. These are words and phrases that we take for granted and therefore don’t acknowledge for what they are, metaphors. Think of phrases and words like bottleneck, get the upper hand, foot note, scatterbrain, manipulation, (manus is hand in Latin) left-handed way, stick one’s neck out, pain in the ass, etc. etc.

The collage as a concept has – in the words of biologist Richard Dawkins – become a very successful meme. A meme is the cultural correspondence to the gene. And like the striking and successful metaphor, collage has both as a practice and a concept gone underground and out of sight. The collage is very much alive but seldom gets noticed because it is now, like for example reading, part of our culture.

Television is becoming a collage - there are so many channels that you move through them making a collage yourself. In that sense, everyone sees something a bit different. David Hockney

The collage conquered the world because it fit perfectly in an era where many values were shattered to pieces, where hierarchies broke down, where all that is solid melted into thin air.

All fixed, fast frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real condition of life and his relations with his kind. . Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels – The communist manifesto

The media of our times grow in numbers, get more intense, the tempo is constantly increasing. The mediated reality is cut into smaller and smaller bits and pieces. We more and more live in a mediated reality; a mosaic of disparate and simultaneous impressions.

In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation. Guy Debord The Society of the Spectacle

The modern collage can be seen as a reaction against, and a consequence of the Industrial Revolution with its rapid production of new media, cheaper media, new circumstances, and new patterns of consumption. The collage is the first remediating and recycling art form where other techniques and other forms of art are combined and therefore rendered visible in an artistic practice.

The collage is the first visual art form which freely makes use of any media and any source of material. Citations, samples, theft, paraphrases, genre crossing, appropriation, this is the very core of the collage. The collage foreboded both postmodernism and the questions that the internet and file sharing brought along. Who is the originator? Who is the copyright holder? What is an original work of art? Is it possible to work as an artist without borrowing from others? Are there really any great geniuses who can create groundbreaking works of art out of thin air? The principle of collage is the most important and influential artistic discovery in the twentieth century which saturates our time in all artistic, technical and metaphoric matters.

Collage has served as the springboard, the model for larger scale works in painting or sculpture both as medium and as a language, therefore, collage and its related idoms, assemblage and the found object, continue to significantly influence some of the most revolutionary artistic manifestations in our time. Diane Waldman, Collage, Assemblage, and the found object, page 10

The collage is the essential means of expression in modern art and has left its imprint in all artistic movements following cubism, from dada and futurism, constructivism, surrealism pop art and situationism to today’s internet-based digital forms of expression.

The same aesthetic operates at the heart of electronic texts, though we seldom notice it for what it is – an aesthetic of collage, the central technique of twentieth-century visual art. Richard Lanham

The collage is the perfect metaphor for the times we live in. The concept of the crossover is by now more or less mainstream. The eclecticism of pop music is the prime exponent of this trend with the Beatles as an early example, but we find it everywhere, for example in the fashion world. Nothing is really new under the sun so in order to produce innovations we arrange and combine old things and old concepts in new ways. Recycling, combining, copying and pasting, drawing inspiration from any culture, from any time in history. But it also holds true for how we move in and out of different roles and identities.The principle of the collage corresponds with the imploding world either as a way of deconstruction or as a way of splicing the shattered bits and pieces together into a meaningful whole.

All of us move between local, regional, national, and global citizenship with much greater ease; borrowing from cultural practices and lifestyles to create our own path. The very act of living today is often dynamic and continuously evolutionary. Collage and assemblage can speak to this state of affairs by either deconstructing and rearranging things in a way that expresses an overwhelming diversity, or by reconstructing things into new narratives. (lost link)

Collage put into practice

The text in Swedish © Edvard Derkert

My interest in collage began in 1966 when for the first time I saw the cover of the Beatles album Revolver. The cover art is a mixture of drawings and photos depicting the members of the group. Both the cover art and the music made a great impression on me and I started to experiment with collages/montages in different media. Today I am active as a fine artist, illustrator and graphic designer and the collage is my main vehicle for self expression. But what is so attractive with collage? Why not painting or wood cutting? One explanation is of course that the first cut is the deepest. Things that you perceive as a child or teenager often leave a greater imprint than later experiences. And the 60s were very much an era of collage and mixed media both in music and art.
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At the end of the 80s I worked as music journalist on the Swedish Radio. On one occasion I was asked on the air by a colleague why I had made my program as a sound collage. Many of my programs were made as montages or mixes – but I had never really thought much about it. It was just natural for me. I was silent for a moment, the hand of the studio clock moved on. After what I experienced as a much too long time of embarrassing radio silence I finally said: the collage is such a poetic medium!

Was that all I had to say? It became apparent that I didn’t have a clue of what I was doing. From then on I have tried to find out what the principle of the collage is and why I chose it as my modus operandi. When inviting artists to Cut & Paste I was of course curious how they would answer the very same question I was asked on the radio. So we sent out a questionnaire which we used as a backbone when we wrote the introductory text for each artist.

I had the notion that general personal traits would in some part influence the choice of artistic medium and working method. I also had the very self-centered idea that people who make collages are like me. At least to some degree. So what am I like? I am a player - not a planner. I am impulse driven; now’s the time. I like to improvise – not to compose. I am quickwitted but not very logical or analytical. I am curious and like to be surprised. In fact these are often my happiest moments. Collage is a very fast medium; when you put in a new scrap of paper so much happens at once and often in ways you could not have foreseen. So the collage is obviously a medium that suits me very well. So what answers did we get from the participants on Cut & Paste. I found some common traits – please judge for yourself if there is some truth to my assumption.
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Kareem Rizk says he never had a lot of patience for drawing. “It was also a skill that seemed to deteriorate over time without regular practice. Painting was also very time consuming. I wanted to produce images more quickly. Using existing images such as photos and press cuttings enabled me to produce work more regularly and often with a higher level of spontaneity.” Mia Mäkilä holds more or less the same view. “I prefer collage to painting because it is faster, more spontaneous and therefore closer to the emotions I wish to express”. After gathering and choosing material, Eva von Platen plays, “mostly without a plan, I try to produce or provoke contrast and contradiction, because it often leads to something funny or bizarre. The pace is very important”.

Some of the participants, like Kate Stehr, Sandra Müller, Sophia McInerneyrarely or never plan their work. “Most of the time I’m really fast when creating a collage. When I start I have no idea what I decided to express in the beginning. It’s always fascinating to see how things turn out in the end”, says Sandra Müller. That holds true also for Eva Han: “I don’t need any preparations - all I need is my X-acto knife, scissors, glue and papers and my subconscious mind. With the collage the unexpected happens.” Others do have a preconceived idea about the outcome, but quite often are led astray during the working process. Like Liz Cohn: “If I start with a plan, I can seldom stick to it!” Some of the artists work at a slower pace, usually in the gathering and selecting stage of the work process.

Kareem Rizk’s work process is slow and controlled and even though chance elements are brought into the picture, the final result will always be orderly and governed by “strong design principles”. The same goes for Px(c): “My collages often start when I stumble upon a particular image that I can associate with another one I know I already have. In some cases, the first two images can stay on my studio wall for some time.”

Woefoep keeps his collages open for change for as long as possible until he finds what he wants. Gamze Özer states that: “Even though I like to live spontaneously, I act in the exact opposite way when I am making collages. I lay all my materials on the floor and spend my time looking at them.” “In a way it is a matter of control”, says Randy Mora: “I don’t like to rush things, it isn’t only about achieving a result through trial and error, we should watch the artwork, to set limits and know when to stop.” Others are more process-oriented, like Fred Free: “There can be chance and randomness and planning and sketching and quickness and slowness, ... but if there is one consistent thing in my process however, it is a sense that I am working / living / experiencing something in the moment.”

Even though some of the artists plan more than others, they are all willing to take another route when the “right” persuasive picture elements come their way and turn every plan upside down. Very often it takes time and patience to get things right: “I plan my collages out to a certain extent, but most of the time those don’t seem to work and are taken apart and put away, only to show up again the next week in a new arrangement.” (Richard Russell)

For any artist the element of surprise is one to cherish but to collage artists the chances for the unexpected are a lot better than for sculptors and painters. According to Jan Stenmark this is due to the collage method itself. The imagination gets help from the outside and “one creates things not possible from just indulging in one’s own imagination”.

Kate Stehr writes: “I like the freedom collage allows me. I’m not so concerned about making mistakes, as I can always tear up, paste over, and re-use any ‘failed’ pieces.” This freedom opens up to a more uninhibited artistic practise and to moments of happy astonishment. The element of surprise is very important to many of the participants. Kate Stehr mentions the“surprise as a reward for spending time with a piece”. Christer Themptander says: If you surprise yourself you also surprise others!”

Sophia McInerney states that she likes the simplicity and ease of making collages. She was originally drawn to the D.I.Y. aspect and how collage can be made up of really simple elements. For some participants the chance element is a vital part in the making of collages. Gamze Özer appreciates collages because they“are created entirely out of coincidence”. Fred Free enjoys the“use of random words and text bits as a new kind of poetry”. Sophia McInerney ads:“There is definitely a large element of chance in my work, as I do like to take advantage of the images I have on hand, and I often just use those images and just see how it develops.” However, these so called coincidences, these meetings of disparate source pictures and different text snippets could also be the doings of the unconscious. For Mia Mäkilä “the collage is foremost an instrument to make the unconscious visible. Collages undress the artist and tell us who he/she is.”

Collage
Collage is easy to make and at the same time very inexpensive when it comes to material. Or even free! For Sandra Müller using magazines and paper was the cheapest way to express herself. To Eva von Platen reinvention is a question of economicay:“extract a piece, put it in a new context: get a new context without big effort”.

In collage there actually is something as a free lunch. The theme of re-use and recycling is very important for many collage artists. To “use things that were bound for, or already were in the trash”, as Fred Free puts it;“the romantic idea of rescuing things forgotten, giving new existence to old, seemingly useless stuff.” (Piotr Golonka) And of course you can also re-use your own work in collage practice like Maria Bajt who cuts out pieces from her paintings and glues them onto others.

Another common trait in many collages is the use of vintage imagery. Px(c) writes:“The reason might be economic as it’s easy to find a pile of old magazines for a couple of dollars. Another reason might be that most milestone collages in art history are from the 1910s and the 1950-1960s which makes them vintage from our point of view.” Woefoep loves a vintage look, torn papers, used tickets, old stamps, postcards, moments from a past still showing. The same goes for Kareem Rizk:“I have somewhat of an obsession with nostalgia. I collect vintage magazines, old books and all forms of printed ephemera to use in my artwork. By using nostalgic images and materials the artwork in essence could be considered nostalgic. But the materials in the finished artwork always have a new context with a contemporary aesthetic.”

Anything can be re-used in collage and assemblage. When Piotr Golonka creates a collage he uses a variety of sources, mixing papers with other materials which he finds in old factories and the attics of old houses. Kate Stehr is“a compulsive collector of interesting bits and pieces and collage is a great way to utilise them.” Richard Russell goes through phases of hunting and collecting, sorting and filing what he has found, and then finally putting his collages together.“It is often a great pleasure, sometimes the greatest, to scout around for collage material in flea markets and second hand stores” says Jan Stenmark.

The oldest artist on this show is 66 and the youngest is 19. One have worked with collage for more than 40 years and some have just started. Almost all of the collagists presented in Cut & Paste have one thing in common: they prefer working with paper and glue to using the computer and programs like Photoshop for making collages although many of them are graphic designers and illustrators and thus know what the digital techniques can offer. So it is not lack of knowledge that guides the choice of technique. The most common reason is that they like to feel and smell the paper materials. Christer Themptander says he is stuck in the material world and must be able to touch and feel his material in order to be creative. Liz Cohn agrees:“Texture, edges, and depth are things I can feel with my fingers. You can’t get that with digital images”

Jan Stenmark and Christer Themtander (the oldest participants) work strictly analogue but Christer uses copying machines to manipulate his source material. Some are like Liz Cohn downright negative to digital techniques: “Working in the real world with real materials is art.” Gamze Özer is sceptical:“You can create the rippled texture of old pieces of paper or even the remains of glue using digital techniques; I, however, believe this is too artificial and not fitting to the amateur soul of creating a collage.” Fred Free has a more varied view:“I do not have a preference - there are things I like about both. For example - I like that in traditional collage I can’t just undo something - I have to make a decision and [glue]stick with it. But I also like that in digital, I can basically do the opposite. It’s these seemingly contradictory desires that perplex and inspire me.”

Mia Mäkilä uses both techniques:“Digital collages are fun to make but people think digital art is suspicious. They don’t see all the hard work you put into it, because the surface is so smooth and ‘polished’. Paper collage and mixed media is much more alive but you can never make any dramatic changes to the paper cut outs like blurring them.” Richard Russell uses the computer at the end of his work process:“The final touch ... is often achieved by digital means like resizing, tweaking and printing after scanning the paper collages.”

Finally, Igor Skaletsky emphasizes the collage’s unique ability “to organically combine things which, at first glance, are absolutely incompatible.” It comes at no surprise that almost each of the participants stresses this. It, indeed, is the essence of collage.