Monday 14 April 2014

March 31, 2014

If anyone in the world actually follows this blog I apologize for not posting for a while.   

The work posted today was born out of a desire to begin to work more 3-dimensionally with the collage process.  I made the pieces as if I was constructing mixed-media sculptural wall pieces and simply used a drop shadow with each piece to give it the look of a discreet object or stretched canvas.  It’s a simple effect but one that allowed me to imagine what 3-D collage installations could look like.  I want to build actual (not virtual) 3-D collages something like constructivist reliefs, as well as large 3-D installations made from printing the separate layers of a collage on mylar and other transparent materials and then reconstructed.

The weekend that I made these collages, I had suddenly taken the 3-D idea to heart and made a number of drawings in my sketchbook.  I tried the same process digitally and, of course, had to use what I could find digitally so these collages differ significantly from my drawn ideas.  I was intrigued with the idea that perhaps a 3-D collage could act as a locus of memory, where each fragment of the collage is a distillation of a place or event and the juxtaposition of the fragments could coalesce in the viewer’s mind as a ‘moment’ of memory or ‘trigger’ a sense of memory or déjà vu.   

I was thinking about creating collages as ‘sites’ where the juxtaposition or collision of the elements could ‘trigger’ a sense of past memories of events.  As memories are often triggered by different senses, I thought the pieces should have audio, some moving pictures (the waterfall on the left in Collage 129), neon sign elements, and even wondered about using an atomizer to spray the occasional scent.

Wishful thinking, I suppose, and these examples are probably not the best examples of work that ‘triggers’ memories.

Digital Collage 123

Digital Collage 124

Digital Collage 125

Digital Collage 126

Digital Collage 127

Digital Collage 128