I moved into a typical student houseshare when I was 24 - lovely people but I didn't have loads in common with two lesbians and a continuously stoned guitar-strumming hippy. It was a very communal house and I found the obligatory vegtarian korma dinners and trips to the local student pub quiz night constricting to say the least. The final straw came when my flatmates developed an unholy addiction to Dawson's Creek and every Tuesday they would gather round (even Stoner Dude emerging from his garret), to watch that god-awful programme.
It was around this time I started hiding up in my room making little collages to avoid the appalling spectre of the Dawson's love-in. Usually they featured images of my boss at the photo lab where I worked with his hand up a customer's arse or something similar. I had discovered John Heartfield's photomontages at university and loved their anti-nazi subversiveness as well as their stark black and white simplicity. I also liked punk artist Jamie Reid's imagery so heavily associated with the Sex Pistols aesthetic.
I've been collaging for over a decade now with something like thirty or more scrapbooks in existence, from fashion to interiors, Amy Winehouse to black and white imagery. It truly feels like a compulsion at times, with endless piles of tear outs from Vogue and god knows what other publications cluttering up my 'workstation'. Work created from magazine imagery seems to be an increasingly cultish artform, both easily produced and extremely accessible. Check out these two great examples : John Paul Thurlow and Nate Page
Images 5 and 6 courtesy of Google
No comments:
Post a Comment