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Inspired! Paper is a marvellous thing. Gallery Officer Vanessa Turton is endlessly inspired to collect, cut and create with paper, making colourful collage art. Hi. I’m Vanessa. You might have seen me at the Gallery, at the front desk or as an Art Tutor. I’ve been working at MRAG for nearly 12 years now. When I’m not at the Gallery, I have my own art practice in Newcastle where I paint and make things out of paper. In my time working at the Gallery, I have been lucky to see some wonderful works made from paper. Children’s art inspires me too – they are not constrained by overthinking!
Vanessa Turton, #31 of series 100 Collages, 2021 (above), Vanessa Turton, It’s time, 2021, Collage and acrylic on paper (opposite page).
Making collages is one of my favourite things. I love to find material for my collages from second-hand bookshops and op shops. Vintage magazines, children’s picture books, maps, old street directories or old postcards are useful too. The pleasure of cutting the paper and finding the right images, as well as bringing together the layout, composition, and theme, is quietly enjoyable.
I recently made 101 collages for a solo exhibition at Onwards Studio in Newcastle. Some of the collages I make are purely for fun; others contain subtle political, historical or gender-based themes that haphazardly appear as the work evolves. I like to think that the collages take on a life of their own; I’m really just there pushing the shapes around until they find a happy spot.
I have no doubt I'll be inspired by Daniel Agdag’s exhibition Lost Property Office, about the production of a stop-motion film fashioned from over 2,500 sheets of recycled cardboard, patiently hand-cut by the artist to create 1,258 set pieces and delicate individual props!
Give it a try yourself… you never know what may happen! Lost Property Office is on exhibition at MRAG from 27 November 2021 — 20 February 2022
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