Galuh Indri Wiyarti – gw259654 Illustration Level 5 – OUIL 501 Studio Brief 1
Why Collage Considered Being a Language of Modern Art and How It Speaks to The Viewers? The Modernist era probably is responsible for making collage a heavily practiced art within the society. It is believed to be an old practice starting from calligraphers in Japan; although later, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque introduced this technique in the early 1900s, and since then it became highly popular (Black Dog Publishing, 2008). Given the name ‘coller’ as ‘to glue’ in French, it would then influence other movement and era with each of its own values and cultural forms in the development. Werner Spies – a notable art historian – once said; ‘There is hardly a concept that provides a more universal definition of the conditions and opportunities offered by our century of art than that of collage’. By all means, collage has various ranges of forms, expressions, and intentions. It proved to be an intellectual product of artistic points in modernism during the Dada movement, where its being used almost as a political statement within both technique and its message (Kohler, 2012). Dada was widely known because of its ‘original style’ in its beliefs: ‘irony, doubt, provocation, anarchy’, and its inspiration in modern society that leads to another movement, the Surrealism (De L’Ecotais, 2002). The term deconstruction has long been connected to the principle of collage itself; whereas the technique is to deconstruct reality – gathered and put pieces from different sources together – then ‘construct our idea of the world’ (Zu Salm, 2012). Each of us has our own individual response and representation of how we see things. Especially for art practitioners, it allows themselves to present their individual views. It wouldn’t be a complete discussion without mentioning the most well known collage artist in generations; Max Ernst, as his works proven to be various and experimental with each message it carries. As Werner Spies put it, Max Ernst collage ‘speaks its own clear language to the new art scene of today’. Which then leads to another form of collaging called photo-‐ collage. John Stezaker is a practitioner in this technique, whose idea mainly formed from founded images and its usage. As various as collage artists may seem in producing their works to reflect each of their own individual personality, there is always an intriguing part which attracts curiousness among the viewers. The various tone of voice that are being created by assembling pieces of different sources, speaks the language of spontaneity in its creative production. Is it determined on how the practitioners enjoyed the process? Or is it more of associating founded objects and put them into good use? Maybe its better to define the visual appeal that has been closely related to Dada, which happen to be the popular time engaging with collage technique. In addition, looking upon the rationale behind practitioners’ works, such as Max Ernst and John Stezaker to compare production process between then and now. This essay is not going to talk about neither collage historical
background nor its place in the art world; rather it will try to investigate about the way it is used to communicate visually. Dada and Surrealist in Response to Modernism Modern society has taken its toll in defining art as a subject. In evidence, it keeps changing its own terms on how to perceive and appreciate art. Given the example of a lot of movement founded in Modernist era: abstract, expressionism, minimalism, and others. It is true that society developed as time change; art was all about pictorial appreciation in the old times such as painters like Manet, whereas nowadays focused more in understanding the context with the chosen object for engaging a longer term conversation (Bann, 2007). Although these advances in the twentieth century then triggers ‘the crisis of traditional media’ and led to the popular use of new technique in collaging, popularize by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque through both of their painting and sculpture. Facing challenges throughout times, situations too play part in forming society’s views and actions. Just like the war triggered the establishment of Dada movement. As Stephen Bann mentioned in his book called Ways Around Modernism, the so-‐called Dadaists then begin to question ‘all art forms, genres, and media’. This is where Max Ernst played an important role. He was one of the founders of a collage production company called The Zentrale W/3 along with Jean Arp and J.T. Baargeld (De L’Ecotais, 2002). It was one of Max Ernst contribution to Dada activities: not to mention his discoveries in techniques of production and taking subconscious as an object of his works, making him the mostly well-‐known Dada representation as much as the person who influenced Surrealist exploration (Spies, 2008). Dada does not stand for something in particular. One of the movement’s founding father; Tristan Tzara, stated that Dada ‘signifies nothing, and was the greatest protest, the most intense armed affirmation for salvation liberty curse mass combat speed prayer tranquility guerilla private negation and chocolate of the desperate man’ (Tzara, 1920). It dismissed any kind of values and norms and does not have any use in society; it rejected anything related to what the society (in that time ruled by bourgeois) believed in. The fascination for ‘industrial products and technologies’ inspired the movement to produce ‘cultural and social criticism, irony, provocation’ and other related behavior in the form of art (Spies, 2008). This attitude and gesture then shape its own identity and made the Dada artists ‘as members of a cutting-‐edge, politicized avant-‐garde’ (Jones, 2004).
Although Dada did have its own agenda with its anti-‐art protest, Surrealism that came afterwards, offers more intriguing ideas literally and visually. As Stephen Bann put it, it is the product of interdisciplinary of Western art and literature development, and succeeds in ‘raising the bar on curiosity’. Surrealism itself means ‘the dictation of thought, in the absence of all control exercised by reason, and outside all aesthetic or moral considerations’ (Breton, 1924). Its manifestation triggered curiosity that speaks the language of ambiguity caused by its deep ‘connection between art and contemporary scientific discourse’ (Bann, 2007). To sum it up, subconscious has been the focused subject of the movement products, projecting the dream-‐like atmosphere which aroused viewers to questioned its context and meaning. Deconstruction as a Process of Production It is impossible to know more about deconstruction without mentioning Jacques Derrida, a French philosopher whose exploration of ideas led to the term itself. As Nicholas Royle said in his book Jacques Derrida, deconstruction is ‘the action of undoing the construction of a thing’. In depth, it is not a method or a technique, because ‘deconstructive reading attends to the deconstructive processes always occurring in the texts and already there waiting to be read’ (Payne, 1993). It is experiencing the impossible – something understandable which always already on the move within the subjects, ‘a logic destabilization that makes every identity at one itself and different from itself’ (Royle, 2000). In addition, there is an evidence of transformation in deconstruction, which changes something in the structure that has been deconstructed, and creates signs within it that leads for another meaning. Derrida stated that there is a certain connection of that sense of sign ‘between signifier and signified within the system which thereby gives the particular sign its function or meaning’ (Salis, 1987). As an example of one of Derrida’s interviews with Marrizio Ferraris, he attempts to show that ‘within any dialectical situation there remains an element which does not allow itself to be integrated’ systematically in that moment, but on the contrary it ‘presents non-‐oppositional difference that exceeds the dialectic which is itself always oppositional’ (McQuillan, 2012). This is essence to understanding the gesture for deconstruction. As from the book Deconstruction A Reader, it is mentioned that deconstructing a text means to seek the ‘conflicting logics of sense and implication’, in other words the original text never have the exact meanings in the writings and vice versa. Nevertheless, Derrida himself refuse to point out an
absolute answer to define the term deconstruction. This again refers to the transformation in the signs whenever it occurs in texts. Reduction of definition can happen in sentences, depends on how the signifier and signified are used in the text, and if so resulted as the ideal meaning of its own authenticity. Hence, there is no shortcut to sum up deconstruction as a theory; rather it needs to be discussed in depth within its individual forms to determine each of its own meaning and values (McQuillan, 2000). Moreover, narrative plays a part on Jacques Derrida’s implication on deconstruction. In his essay Living On, he questioned the originality of narrative; ‘Where and when did it take place? What might the taking-‐place or the event of a narrative be?’ It should discussed the point where it all started, recounts ‘that scene that mobilized various forces’, which then insist other narrative that follows in telling what exactly happened in that particular moment (Derrida, 1979). Therefore, as narrative considered to be a part in society’s life and closely related to deconstruction, both of them are inevitable. Collage artists in Modern Society: Looking at Max Ernst and John Stezaker There are no other twentieth-‐century artists as innovative as Max Ernst when it comes to experimental playfulness using collage. It reflected upon his works; a foundation he built throughout his entire career. This was proven in early development of his work contributing to Dada eccentric movement. As mentioned by Werner Spies in his book Max Ernst Collages: The Invention of the Surrealist Universe: ‘Max Ernst’s method was antithetical’, creating art as a protest, opposing the already existing art, into a product which display a non-‐ aesthetic material. His determination of using collage is to provoke and spark poetry in a visual way as an accidental encounter between two or more foreign realities brought together (Spies, 2005). Although, his ideologies did not met with his fellow Dada artists from Berlin, whom uses collage technique to interpret political views and current events in a satirical way. This, Max Ernst expressed in a letter he wrote to Tristan Tzara: ‘How typically German! German intellectuals can neither pee nor shit without ideologies’ (Ernst, 1920). Spies then described that Ernst continued to explore and was expose by the Surrealist movement, giving him a new space to experiment and resulting his influenced to this movement exploration of the subconscious. Max Ernst did a lot of experimental collage, mixing various medias such as paintings, clippings, and images from different sources to create an imaginary world of his own. He also took some photographs of his finished collages and made postcards using those before painted it over again. By doing so, not only he increased the sense of illusions, but also ‘to question the traditional meaning of the original in the visual arts’ (Spies, 2008). A rationale similarity also occurred to John Stezaker, a British conceptual artist whose collage works is well known in the modern society nowadays. Stezaker’s interest in collage is to found as much possibilities in connecting different images by combining it together, so then it ‘creates a space for contemplation’ (Ades, 2010). Some of his biggest influences were from Dada
and Surrealism, although as a result of his ongoing research and practical skills, he manages to build his own individual personality projecting different effects and various ways upon his works. In the essay Monteur, Dawn Ades mentioned that Stezaker felt confronted and start to question: ‘how can you be an artist in a culture of images? If the traditional practices like painting were no more than corpses, what room was there for an artist?’ Eventually, John Stezaker works only with images he found, maintaining the flow by taking out and altered them in different context. His method is only to use up to three images, so that the finish pieces will focus on the connection each has (Ades, 2010). This resulted immediate reaction from the viewers, engaging to own interpretations, but most interestingly holds that poetic atmosphere which feels natural. It would not be complete without discussing through the actual work Stezaker produces and of course Max Ernst, to be able to grasp the atmospheric means within collage. Analysing the Work of Max Ernst and John Stezaker According to Werner Spies in the book Max Ernst: Dreams and Revolution, Ernst’s Dadaist work consists of anatomical or surgical drawings, and other images from natural science area from old catalogues, journals, even photographs to depict paradox and combination of human reason in an ironic way. Max Ernst intention using this procedure of collaging is to response to the consequences of World War I in that time, not as a political ideology but more of an opinion to comment the uncertainty towards the world, a ‘reason to absurdity’ (Spies, 2008).
It is reflected in one of his early collage such as Santa Conversazione (1921), in which he portray two figures of a women that combined with images of birds and planes. He use airplane wings to replace the lungs of the woman,
whose right arm and right leg were exposed as veins and muscles can be seen, and some images of birds were pasted in the face and body. Another example from several years later during his time engaged to Surrealist world, one of his illustrations from the publication series Une Semaine de Bonte (1934), shows the same consistency of ambiguity. The image consists of a bird-‐like figure that stabs a woman’s foot and implied to throw her. The use of birds as metaphors in both examples from Max Ernst indicates the transformation of the signs. In Santa Conversazione he expressed it as the repression of freedom, whereas in Une Semaine de Bonte he tried to portray the animal behavior of a person. It is previously mentioned according to Jacques Derrida, that transformation within each text (in this case images) will form each of its own authenticity, making it individually unique because of its different meaning. Ernst communicates his views of relationship between war and people in Santa Conversazione; using airplane to symbolize war itself and how it inflicted people literally by the use of anatomical images. Whereas in Une Semaine de Bonte, he tells the interaction between subjects figuratively. Both of them depict violence and chaotic situation in a different way. In comparison to modern days collage artist, John Stezaker’s work as described by Christophe Gallois and Daniel F. Herrmann in an essay The Third Meaning, consists of using his collection of film stills, nature scenery, and also vintage studio portraits of actors and actresses. He intends to manipulate the ready images by combining and rearrange those images, which then the viewers unconsciousness see another images as a result (Gallois and F. Herrmann, 2010). This projects an ambiguity and mystery upon his works. Stezaker’s Mask Series – in particular; Mask LXV (2007) shows a portrait of a woman which face has been changed with an image of a tunnel cave. The same method can be seen in his more recent work Untitiled (Film still Collage) LIV (2013), where a picture of a man and a woman embracing each other in a kiss, and both of their faces were replaced by a scenery of a wave hitting a rock. Both of his work shows consistency of using metaphors to describe the behavior of the subjects portrayed within the images.
Obvious fascination of nature can be seen by how John Stezaker selected the images and use it to replace faces. His method in collaging transforms the image of sceneries into something engaging visually and contextually. The chosen images in each of his work compliment each other. In Mask LXV it put the tunnel cave into the woman’s face itself, almost telling her characteristic in one image or maybe how she feels in that particular moment. In Untitled LIV the waves scenery portray the relationship of the man and woman, how they feel for each other, their attitudes towards the embracing moment. Although they both have the same theme and atmosphere of romanticism, each have its own authenticity by describing an individual and its connection with herself, whereas the other tells a connection about two subjects. Nevertheless, Max Ernst and John Stezaker have their own way to communicate different intentions. Such evidence from their works shows playfulness in narrative using collage. Ernst produce work that get the viewers to questioned what happened in the past, or what will happen in the future within each images he created. While Stezaker’s triggers question of the presence, what is going on in that moment for the individual or between subjects in his works. Either way, both of the artists succeed to engage and offer conversations for the viewers to enjoy. In conclusion, the practice of collage was influenced by society’s condition when it needed a change of technical production, as time is one of the main concerns and which traditional art was not enough to satisfy its purpose. Dada movement proven to facilitate the use of collage in art, in response to war in that time as an anti-‐art protest, breaking and changing norms of art definition against the system that society have already created. Furthermore, this leads to early development of Surrealism, where art does not mean visually direct communication to the viewers, but to trigger curiosity which form by connection between contemporary art and the field of science. In other words, offering something that is outside moral considerations and luring the viewers’ subconscious. Deconstruction then explores the meaning behind the method of collage itself; it is fundamental to understand how collage works. Taking Max Ernst and John Stezaker as examples, both have the same rationale in producing works. Although from different times, they intend to have something similar, questioning the liability of traditional art in the modern era. By having that in mind, both explore the ideas and develop their practices in their own voices. Max Ernst interest in mixing medias; painting, clippings, images from anything he can gain as sources, recycling even the finished product itself turning it into another product. Ernst tends to challenge himself to produce more, and his view towards the war during that time was portrayed on the finished product: experimental technique with violence depiction. On the other hand, John Stezaker is more interested in the nature and recycling his collection of film stills and portraits. Stezaker puts a lot of thoughts to find range of combination, rearranging founded images to make connection between each of them to produce another image that will have new context. His work feels more emotional and romantic.
Overall, both have the same mystery in it and intrigued the viewers with each of their own method in the art of collage. They both succeed to show authenticity in each of their personality given throughout their works. It shows their capability to experiment with founded objects, creating a whole new context for the viewers to enjoy. It transfers and speaks the poetic tone of voice shown in the narrative played by rearranging and combining images. It is the collision of many world from each pieces of images, that plays its wonders of creating a new form of interesting visual, succeed in presenting long-‐term conversation within the society even for future endeavor. Visual Investigation There were two main focuses that have been investigated throughout the visual journal, spontaneity and narrative using collage technique. Taking images from all different kind of sources, also recycling from finished collage pieces combined with gouache as a part of experimenting with feelings and emotions. The first half of the visual journal mainly tries to find as many combinations as possible in rearranging pieces together. Taking Max Ernst’s method of mixed media, gouache was also being used to suggest emotions and mood in each produce collage. While the second half enters the narrative aspect using collage technique, rearranging founded images to portray a ‘flow’ throughout the pages. As discussed in the essay that narrative plays an important role in deconstruction theory, this part suggest that no matter where the sources of founded images came from, its possible to arrange them together to produce a certain harmony and create a storyline from it. It is important to underlined that this production of collages in the visual journal does not contain a specific definition in each pages, but more likely to bring suggestions to a story which each viewers will have different interpretations of. The context that needs to be understand throughout the visual journal are the connection within each viewers emotions or what they have in mind in response to the collage production. As spontaneous as the collage method in producing the images, the response of the viewers also reflects spontaneity the minute they saw each images. It is a direct visual communication with a complex context, which allows individuals to define the meanings behind it. It is a unique language that speaks its own words.
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