(de)_TAGLIO MAGAZINE
alvaro sanchez franz samsa joe castro john whitlock kate cuthbert marisa maestre
4
mike deSutter six col stefan schneider steve tierney
“Fragment”
Sul tema. About the theme. L’accostamento di più pezzi di carta, come nel caso del collage, la si può interpretare come una conversazione di singoli elementi diversi tra loro per forma, dimensione o colore che concorrono alla definizione di un disegno complessivo che risponde a una nuova idea: un nuovo messaggio, in grado di ricondurre la totalità al singolo frammento e di assorbire in esso la diversità e la particolarità dei singoli elementi. Come in un mosaico dove ogni singola tessera, nella sua diversità, partecipa al tutto, assumendo un nuovo valore estetico e comunicativo. Si arriva ad apprezzare un nuovo ordine compositivo complesso, inconsueto dettato dalla potenza del caso e della pertinenza.
The combination of several paper pieces can be interpreted as a conversation of different elements to each other that contribute to the definition of an overall design, responding to a new idea: a new message, able to bring the whole to a single fragment and to absorb therein the diversity and singularity od individual fragments. Like a mosaic where every each tiles partecipates to whole, assuming a new aesthetic and communicative value. You come to appreciate a new compositional order complex, unusual dictated by the power and relevance of the case.
Alvaro Sanchez
introduce yourself My name is Alvaro Sánchez im an self taught artist born and based in Guatemala city. Im a collage and mixmedia artis and also a graphic designer. red wine drinker, and coffee addict. Compulsive buyer of books and cd’s, cinema and music lover. how long you make collages? I have been doing collage since 16 years ago. It was the time that i really discover the DADA movement at its fullest and my admiration started there. So i wanted to do the same and from that time i haven’t stop and dont have plans to do so. where and how you draw inspiration for your works? I usually do a lot of research of the subjects i like: Philosophy, Physicology, and a subjects related to human existence. Also i find a lot of inspiration in literature which help me a lot specially poetry because it gives me a more easy way to make associations of a lot of ideas But mostly i found inspiration in my country which form me is a very weird place to live.
speak about your collage of this issue’s magazine This collage for me talks about the many issues of the human being all the things broken inside of us since the definition of fragment is: a part broken off or detached. I found inspiration in the old anatomy studies of bodies. I think there is a strange beauty to see them all broken and old. For me is a perfect metaphore for our all searchs and hopes is a perfect reflection of the human condition; it’s a celebration dedicated to our errors and disgraces and everything that reminds us that we are imperfect, fragmented and how finite we are. why did you choose to cummicate glue and cutter? I choose glue and cutter because it came to me very naturally. I didn’t force it or something. I just felt very comfortable with it. I and it develops very well for my needs. Also i love the playfulness side of it which is very important for me to enjoy what i do. It takes me back to my childhood years when creativity was much pure. I want to go back to that primal stage of myself. Maybe thats why i choose this.
Franz Samsa
introduce yourself My name is Mirko Pugliara but I prefer to be called Franz Samsa.. It’s a borrowed name from Franz Kafka and its metamorphosis’s character Gregor Samsa. I was born in Siracusa, Sicily but I’ve been living in Milan for some years now. I’m a discreet person and spend most of my time between making collage and reading Michael Houellebecq’s books. how long you make collages? I started two years ago but before then I used to do abstract painting. I still like painting but I’m now more focused on collage and love it.
The composition of the paint is divided into different steps. I first choose the type of paper that will be my base. I think about the shapes and colours that I’d like to obtain out of the work. I usually ask myself which subject do I want? A body? Is it a man’s or a woman’s one? Or is it instead of architectural origin? From there I start researching the main image. I then decide which color should be predominant and the different details and finishing bits. All of my characters belong to the same abstract landscape, sometimes composed by fragments of poems, architecture and colors. Even do they’re all part of the same scenery they’re not capable to communicate with one another. Even when they are trying to touch, kiss or hug each other there is always something in their way. That’s hideously sad, I know.
where and how you draw inspiration for your works?
why did you choose to cummicate glue and cutter?
I like Nouvelle Vague movies and post rock music and they’ve become the greatest source of my inspiration. Art wise I’m also influenced by the COBrA movement and the techniques used by such painters. I also check the works of other collage artists, too to find new ideas and visions for my own work.
It’s hard to say. When I look at the beautiful works of other great artists such as my friend Emidio Bernardone and Mike DeSutter I think I should quit however making collage has been a way for me to express my love for vintage materials and the absurdity of life. I often approach themes such as the lost love, solitude and nostalgia. I love cutting books, pick photos and gift them with a new imaginary life, in a place between past and present where everything is absurd, timeless and unfortunately lost.
speak about your collage of this issue’s magazine
Joe Castro
introduce yourself
I think it’s perfectly capable of speaking for itself, don’t you?
My name is Mighty Joe Castro and I am an American collage artist, musician and roustabout.
why did you choose to cummicate glue and cutter?
how long you make collages?
I’ve been at a total loss ever since my typewriter ran out of ribbon so I had to come up with some method to get across. Plus you get to play with knives – who doesn’t love that?
I started seriously making collages around 2004 so about 12 years. where and how you draw inspiration for your works? The initial inspiration comes from the individual images themselves, the ones I find that speak to me on some deeper level. As I continue working on the piece, I begin to realize what I’m trying to say and from there the rest of the images are sought out and hunted down. I make it a point not to spend too much time looking at other collage artist’s work - I want to keep it honest and would rather look inward. Music is always on, though, to help set the mood. That’s a constant inspiration. speak about your collage of this issue’s magazine
John Whitlock
introduce yourself My name is John Whitlock I’m an Artist and Musician from Brooklyn. My work, inspired by popular graphic culture and the overabundance of media stimuli present in our society, attempts to evoke familiarity through abstraction. how long you make collages? All of my life in some form or another. where and how you draw inspiration for your works? I am generally driven by the desire to communicate through abstraction, and challenge peoples sensibilities with new, but familiar seeming imagery. speak about your collage of this issue’s magazine “Man Hands” is a handmade collage on hand made cold press paper. It is geometric work that hopefully leaves a facial impression.
why did you choose to cummicate glue and cutter? Collage is a favorite medium of mine because of it’s immediacy. Unlike painting or drawing (which I also love for different reasons), with collage I can move very quickly and not get tied up too much with technique or process – so it really becomes an exercise in the visual expression.
Kate Cuthbert
introduce yourself My name’s Kate Cuthbert and I live in Adelaide, South Australia. how long you make collages? I’ve always made collages. I used to make zines of life events but only started sharing my work with others about a year and a half ago. where and how you draw inspiration for your works? I’m inspired by anything and everything. Often the materials themselves inspire me. At the moment I’m particularly interested by movement and pattern. speak about your collage of this issue’s magazine For this piece I tried to convey the theme of fragments as not just pieces of ‘things’ but pieces of oneself. why did you choose to cummicate glue and cutter?
I have a love for paper, especially vintage materials, and making something new out of something existing or that has been discarded.
Marisa Maestre
introduce yourself I am Marisa Maestre. I am an illustrator, designer and collagist artist based in Madrid, where I was born, in Spain. how long you make collages? I started expanding my passion of creating collages after attending an exhibition of Max Ernst “UNA SEMANINE DE BONTE” in Madrid, 2009. I used to work closed to the exhibition place so I ended up visiting it as many times as I could. Somehow I got obsessed with Max’s work. I guess, it was the turning point that pusmed me through collage technique. It really caught me up, or even beyond Max Ernst and his art bewitched me. where and how you draw inspiration for your works? I am inspired by so many things, such as nature, architecture, music, mostly everything around is my source of inspiration. What strikes me most is how through the elements we can see and even feel not only its decay but also how time goes on over them. I guess this is the reason why I like so much the engravings, old photographs, wallpapers, and so on.
speak about your collage of this issue’s magazine It is a collage which includes three pieces of magazines from the 60s. It is entitled “Reflections” why did you choose to cummicate glue and cutter? I am fascinated by the artistic game created by assembling different pieces of elements, which have nothing to do with each other a priori. Place them in a different type of support and empower them to be part of a work, I do think it has a romantic side.
Mike DeSutter
introduce yourself Hello, my name is Michael DeSutter. I’m an artist and graphic designer living in Brooklyn, NY. how long you make collages? I’ve created collage work of one type or another for the past 13 years. A couple years in the middle there I focused only on digital collage and soon returned to hand cut collage, which I find a lot of enjoyment in now. where and how you draw inspiration for your works? A lot of my inspiration comes from my background in photography and those that influenced me during my studies. Here are some of my biggest influences: The brash raw expression of Robert Frank in a time when America wanted things sugar coated. The formal elements of László Moholy-Nagy’s work and the way he challenged me to look at things from a different vantage point. Robert Rauschenberg who wasn’t worried about how archival his work was, he needed to express himself. And Hannah Hoch, wow!
speak about your collage of this issue’s magazine Recently, I’ve allowed myself to explore complete abstraction. I’m most excited about movement and how movement can be created by connecting formal elements inside of recognizable imagery. why did you choose to cummicate glue and cutter? Collage is an easy choice for me. I’m interested in the past. It excites me to interact with the past to create new things in the present.
Six Col
introduce yourself Hello, I’m a french self-made artist from Toulouse, France. My name is Cyril aka 6col. I like extracting a photo of its context, place it in a different situation, create new scenes from photos carefully selected in encyclopediae, ancient books found in flea-markets. how long you make collages? 2O years ago, I began cutting pictures, gathering different items , creating scenes with scissors and glue, without knowing that this leisure was a full art named: THE COLLAGE. where and how you draw inspiration for your works? I am essentially inspired by my everyday life, by the disturbing current events , subjects as overconsumption, capitalism, industrialization and the humanity’s stupid behaviors . If my collages, usually full of irony, inspire people to think or change their point of view, then it’s a success! I also like that my collages tell stories . I’m also inspired by the books, encyclopedias , old pictures and papers I find in brocante, flea-markets, attic sales and
trash cans! The searching is as exciting as the creative part. I attach a great importance to the frames, carefully selected to match with the collage. speak about your collage of this issue’s magazine Horreur de jeunesse is a play on words in French. The real expression is « erreur de jeunesse », youth mistake is replaced by youth horror. In this collage, a man tries to cover up the horror of the past symbolised by the swastika. But it’s impossible to hide from the past. Actual sense of anxiety in our world where fascism is still here, depriving people from their freedom and keeping them under surveillance. why did you choose to cummicate glue and cutter? Good question. Because I can’t sing ! I always liked to mix photographs and pictures from magazines, trying to tell stories, and ended up with cutter and glue in my hands, it’s my only way to express myself.
Stefan Schneider
introduce yourself Hi, my name is Stefan. I’m a graphic designer and living in Berlin. I try to discover something new every day; otherwise life would be boring and dreary. how long you make collages? I can’t say that for sure anymore. I had already tinkered with the topic during my studies. That was almost15years ago. I actively started around 2010, and for about four years now I’ve been trying to regularly show my works in various exhibitions. where and how you draw inspiration for your works? Mainly I draw inspiration from observations. Ideas arise because I contemplate and question things. And that can be anything – from other collages, to street art, to very good graphic design pieces. Berlin gives me a lot of input; I just have to seize it. Many of my collages develop from little moments in time, a particular inspiration, or even from a visual concept I’ve had in my head for a while. I rarely implement specific topics. It fascinates me, what’s still to come.
speak about your collage of this issue’s magazine For a while, I was very dissatisfied with my collages. It all felt like the same. I needed a break. During that time I intensely studied minimal and concrete art - reductions to shapes, simple structures, or basic geometric elements. That’s the determining reason why my current collages are reduced to basic graphics. In the future, I’d like to combine geometric shapes, few elements, and a graphic look. These aspects I specifically connect to my way of working. Therefore, my results are never clean and perfect. That would be dull! why did you choose to cummicate glue and cutter? It’s not especially working with glue, scissors or scalpel, I rather love working with very old paper. Every piece tells its own story - old magazines, school folders, books, photo albums, or even posters on the street. They all possess something personal and distinct. It even happens sometimes that I first read the magazine for two hours before I even grab the glue. It’s my method of relaxing from daily work stress and the hustle and bustle of the city.
Steve Tierney
introduce yourself My name is Steve Tierney. I’m a mixed media artist and graphic designer. I was born in Australia, but have been living in several countries between South East Asia and Latin America since 2011. For the last 3 years I’ve mostly lived in Oaxaca, Mexico. I love Oaxaca. It’s an amazing city full of creativity, passion, collaborative opportunities and important cultural influences and history. As well as some of the best food in the world. how long you make collages? I switched from drawing and cartooning to creating mixed media images while I was studying design in 1995. For a while I experimented with a lot of painting, screen printing and writing in sketchbooks and other materials. It was not until around 2010 that I discovered my current way of creating handmade collage and began to define a stronger style of my own. where and how you draw inspiration for your works? Much of my inspiration comes from life experiences and things that affect me, and the people around me. Some works are very personal. Others are just abstract images created from the material I have in front of me. They tend to always tell a personal story though. Music is also a huge inspiration.
speak about your collage of this issue’s magazine When I think about ‘fragments’, I think of memories. The small parts of life that make up the larger story. This collage is about the memories that stay with you, as you get older. The way that experiences and beliefs can influence your thinking. It’s also about getting trapped by past experience, and the beliefs and memories we carry around with us through life. Recently I’ve been working toward not allowing my thoughts or past memories to influence my future decisions. It’s not easy to do. why did you choose to cummicate glue and cutter? It wasn’t necessarily a conscious choice or decision. When I was in design school, I was influenced by one of my teachers to try different things in art making that I had never thought of, or been shown before. He taught me to use all the materials around me and not limit myself to just a pencil or paintbrush. I found that I enjoyed cutting up photos and text and re-mixing my own new images. I can draw and paint, but I enjoyed this process more somehow. I like the immediacy of it. I think I’m able to get to the final idea quicker and with more satisfaction through collage than by other means. I also have an obsession with collecting discarded objects and old magazines. Cutting them up and making new artworks seems like the best thing to do with them.
Manifesto. 17-07-2015 Ermanno Cavaliere
Soffermarsi sulla banalità può essere interessante per la scoperta di un nuovo senso intrinseco alle cose. La banalità è quando nel quotidiano elementi ed oggetti perdono significato, di spessore, per l’abitudine. Dunque una ricerca dell’invisibile. Gli occhi possono trasformare la realtà e guardare oltre le superfici. Un frammento di carta decontestualizzato può assumere una nuova vita, in un nuovo scenario espressivo e comunicativo, dove il singolo genera il tutto e il tutto è espressione di una nuova conversazione tra gli elementi. Il frammento decontestualizzato riafferma la sua identità (da invisibile a visibile) e nella conversazione con altre forme, colori, genera nell’insieme una nuova idea, un nuovo concetto. L’accostamento tra singoli elementi provoca una tensione, ma anche una nuova empatia, che conversando nella diversità, raggiungono una nuova identità. Il collage è occasione per far rivivere e riscoprire la singolarità del quotidiano. Si gioca con la potenza visiva dell’elemento singolo e con la forza dell’insieme. In questo arcipelago di pezzi, il caso genera un quadro di conversazioni in cui i segni del tempo sono gli elementi espressivi. In questo gioco il caso è il pendolo che scandisce il tempo.
Focusing on banality can lead to the discovery of a new intrinsic meaning of things. Banality is when everyday elements and objects lose their meaning and their depth because of habit. So, it’s a search for the invisible. Our eyes can transform reality and look beyond the surface appearance. A decontextualized fragment of paper can take on a new life, in a new expressive and communicative scenario, where a single element generates the whole and the whole is an expression of a new conversation between elements. The decontextualized fragment reaffirms its identity (from invisible to visible) and in conversation with other shapes and colors, it generates a new idea, a new concept. The juxtaposition of single elements causes a tension, but also a new empathy: this conversation within diversity creates a new identity. Collage is an opportunity to revive and rediscover the uniqueness of everyday things. It’s about playing with the visual power of the single element and with the strength of the whole. In this archipelago of pieces, chance creates a scenario of conversations in which signs of time are the expressive elements. In this game, chance is the pendulum that beats time.
Agostino d’Ippona 354 - 430
Un progetto di ÂŽErmanno Cavaliere (GOGE)
http://detagliomagazine.tumblr.com/ ermanno_cavaliere@yahoo.com