Kitaya Eri

Collage is an art technique of assembling different materials, such as newspaper clippings, textiles, photographs, paper, found objects, and more, to create a work of art This art form emerged during the 20th century and has its roots in the artistic avant-gardes of the period The earliest experiments with collage date back to the early 20th century, but it was the Dadaist movement, which emerged during World War I, that contributed significantly to its popularity. The Dadaists, including artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Hannah Höch and Kurt Schwitters, used collage to challenge existing artistic traditions and to express their disgust with the society and culture of the time. The Dadaists often used newspaper clippings, photographs and found objects to create provocative and ironic compositions. In recent decades, collage has continued to evolve and adapt to new technologies and digital media. With the advent of computers and editing software, digital collage has become increasingly popular, allowing artists to experiment with a wide range of materials and techniques. Today, collage is a popular art form and continues to be used by many contemporary artists to express ideas, emotions, and concepts in creative and innovative ways. Its versatile nature and its ability to combine disparate elements offer endless expressive possibilities. And it is precisely this last element that is perhaps the most fascinating feature inherent in the collage technique. Indeed, through the latter, one has the possibility of creating new worlds within which the canonical rules of space-time do not exist and the elements of reality lose their connotation and everyday use to be reformulated as real objects that are part of an ecosystem The transition between objects having a purpose to semiophore objects is particularly evident in "Inside the donut there is wonderland." We find ourselves below the surface of the sea. The shiluette of waves peeps out at the top of the painting. The perpetual movement of the sea produces expressive outcomes reminiscent of the soft lines of storm clouds. All around, small globular light elements are clues to a light source that, while making its presence felt, is hidden from our view. And in the middle? In the middle of the work we find a girl in a T-shirt and jeans diving into a column of glazed doughnuts. What are we observing? Is this reality? No. The point of the work is to detach ourselves from the intrinsic purpose of the depicted elements to literally take a leap into the fantastic, a journey where everything we think is possible. And so it is that Eri invites us to dive inside the donut castle as well, showing us the way and reassuring us that, having crossed the threshold of the hole, there will be a fantasy world waiting for us. All of this is true and plausible. We are inside a collage: the rules of our world are now completely useless. Let us fall between the doughnuts and make this journey into the fantastic.

Art Curator Lisa Galletti