Collage memories

This is another post showing some old work. This time all the pieces are collages. Our whole lives are like collages nowadays, aren't they? Wasn't this the Cubists' position? That our cities (and later our whole lives with the introduction of new technologies) are awash with imagery that constantly gets recombined, and rejuxtaposed? These works are all about 15 years old, the first lot closer to 20. I think they're all collage on card, possibly covered with adhesive plastic. The ones in the first section and the last section were given to people, so who knows what has happened to them.

These first 6 are part of a series that I made for friends when I lived in Japan. I think it was on the occasion of my first Art For Art's Sake party when I invited people around to finger paint (the 2nd party was a poetry-writing event!). They all got a collage from me as a gift. Wasn't that sweet of me? I think they also got photos of themselves that I had taken. They're all poorly cropped because I scanned badly centred photos and had to crop bits to get a rectangular frame! There were probably another 3 or 4, but I think the photos were even worse for those ones. Should anyone who ever received one happen to read this and still have the work, feel free to scan it for me and email me! The text was matched to the various recipients, but sometimes they just got a random text because someone had to get it! Probably A4 size, maybe a little larger. Probably 1988 or 1989. No titles (I guess they could be the Art For Art's Sake Series).




This next series was never really explicitly an art work. I taped 35 A4 photocopies of Debbie Harry's face to my front door and gradually built up layers of collage. This may not even be the final version. I ended up cutting the 35 sheets apart and still have them. Maybe I'll make a book? Or frame each one individually? Either option, or some other will have to wait until one day when I have some money (if ever). This was when I lived in Tokyo. I subscribed to about 6 or 7 newspapers and magazines at the time, so always had huge amounts of interesting (to me at least) images and text that I needed an outlet for.

I took photos on a regular basis because interesting bits got covered with other bits, so i wanted a history. The first 2 photos are before and after shots.


Note the door handle on the right. The next two photos are the same section at different times.




This last series was supposed to be placemats, but the plastic coating would not really have been suitable for hot dishes! More photocopies, more images, more text. No real theme or intention. Or title, as they weren't really intended as art works. They're about A4 sized. Probably from the early 90s?