Contemporary Collage Week 5 : Decoupage

This week  in Contemporary Collage   we were looking at 'decoupage'  moving from making collage on flat surfaces to decorating an object. Artists we looked at included: Rauschenberg; Matthew Jackson; Peter Blake, Raschid Jackson: Grayson Perry; Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Cornell 

We were asked to bring in something  that didn't mind collaging over, cutting up or adding to. I found this pink card suitcase in the childrens section of a charity shop and  having grand ideas  about  making a Shrine   for Lost Earrings , I also brought in a selection of the small  boxes I'd collected over the years when purchasing earrings. 

Apart from the usual losses/ breakages , I had a purse of  favourite earrings lost/stolen from my rucksack when left in the lobby of a hotel in Athens in 2002 . Some of them I had remade  but others were irreplacable  ( incuding some I'd bought in  Seraphos just days before) .  Since then I only take earrings on holiday that I wouldn't mind losing too much ( I mainly wear dichroic glass ones)

I   even made a  Journal Quilt   containing fabric I printed using scans of  earrings 

and have been meaning to make  an amulet against lost earrings for quite some years ( pictures below are from the excellent book on the subject by Sheila Paine. ) 

I'd gone through magazines cutting out anything to do with jewelry  or red and pink in colour  and had a fine time choosing strange images to stick on

I then found a picture of theatre boxes  from an old V&A members magazine  to  stuck  inside  and  decided to leave it as it was  ( with the addition of a Greek God ). Not so much shrine as suitcase theatre. A bit obvious  but working in 3D is still outside my comfort zone.  

 Unlike Judith  who  with her  architecture/ sculpture  background produced  this amazing structure  ( particularly like the internal space and reflections )

After lunch I turned my attentions to all the little boxes ( reminded by Simon of the boxes of Susan Hiller) 

I used scraps of fabric, sequin waste and foil; bits of braid and ribbon; old stamps :  quirky illustrations from magazines; fold out strips of paper.  As usual time passed too quickly and I'm just staring to explore the possibilities of combining them , stacking them , putting them together.  Some of them  might still end up as miniature pocket shrines.   

 I'll miss the 'bricollage' session next week as I'll  be  in Rydal   but Simon suggested I join in spirit  when I go on walks making  some assemblages  and taking photos of them.

Artworks as triggers of memory

 

A day off work  to finally get to see the Anselm Kiefer exhibition at the Royal Academy ( fitting in a few more exhibitions at National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery for good measure). Amazing, monumental and thought provoking. After starting with a display of books, the 'Attic' paintings are powerful  and I love how the wood grain effects are continued throughout his work - the woodblock prints used in the  'forest' of the last room (below) were fantastic. 

The materials he uses are diverse : straw, mud, sunflowers and seeds   and they have meaning for him. The way he uses lead is fascinating - I particularly liked the books 'under the linden '  and large pieces studded with diamonds were just magical in how they caught the light.

The pieces that I spent most time with were in room 5: ' sands from the urns' (below) based on the clay brick ziggurats of Mesopotamia. Hand -pressed mud was used for  clay tablets and bricks and he is quoted as perceiving " a secret connection between writing and building"  wondering whether bricks , like tablet, could hold memories of people , of events, of time.

I was reminded of our visit to Syria  almost exactly ten years ago,   visiting Ugarit , Dura Europas and Mari , in awe of being somewhere where the ancient past is tangible  and hugely saddened by  what's happening there now .  

 

 Ugarit

 Euphrates

Mari

 

Ziggurats of Pastries in Hama

 

After  treating myself to a delicious lunch at Savoir Faire, I headed off to  the National Gallery  to see the 2  very different seascape inspired displays.   I've long admired the dramatic  paintings of  Maggi Hambling  but I was rather disappointed with these 'Walls of Water' .  Lots of lively marks and use of paint but   for me  all pattern and lacking in content and composition.  Her  monotypes on this theme  like they might be more interesting

 

 

 

Whereas the paintings by Peder Balke  were far more inspiring especially the smaller sketches. I liked how often the waves were suggested quite simply  - it looked like he might have used a painting knife in a similar way as  demonstrated by Susan Gray on my Slapton painting courses.  

On my way home I popped into the National Portrait Gallery  next door to see the Grayson Perry exhibit ' Who are you' .

You could hardly get near his  'self portrait'  City of Days  for people staring intently and giggling. Complex, funny and profound,  like the Reith lectures and  'Tomb of the The Unknown Artist'.

The 'comfort blanket' a tapestry  in the shape of a bank note   was witty but the most powerful pieces were the ceramics  displayed among the Gallery's collections

I spent a lot of time in front of the  beautiful  yet disturbing 'Memory jar', representing memories torn into shards through Alzheimers.