Collage

Collage Workshop

The brief for the collage workshop day was kept very open. We were only instructed that we had to create six or more and that an interesting theme to follow would be juxtapositions, however we did not have to go with this. 

I did stick to this theme and chose to explore the juxtaposition between consumerism/trivial issues and real suffering. I created six collage pieces and tried to explore this juxtaposition slightly differently in each piece. 

 

My first collage piece tried to explore this theme quite generally. I found images in fashion magazines, an atlas and a book about the conditions of British industrial workers and here I decided to put the images of suffering in the background, just like they seem to be in the real world. In front I placed the cuttings found in popular fashion magazines in which they talk about trivial things that don't matter as much, such as the fact 'polka dots are in' or that we spend one year of our lives hungover. These things are completely irrelevant to the sufferers in the background. 

In this piece I focused more on suffering juxtaposed with wealth that is thrown away. I included the amount of money people actually spend on clothes at the moment, money which would be put towards helping the sufferers. I also included the title of an article about how making that amount of money doesn't mean you've made it in some industries and that people with that amount of money still aren't happy, whereas the people in the background would be incredibly grateful for the smallest fraction of that money.

This piece explores how the suffering women in the background images do not care for the trivial issues in the foreground. They don't care about having 'liquid cheekbones' or having grey hair, they have more important issues to worry about, such as having enough food.

This one was kind of a mix but my favourite part of it is the 'new season's luxury leather' against the cattle which are important for the survival of some populations. I also included the suffering of children creating clothes against runway fashion and the amount some celebrities eat and drink at parties against hunger. 

 

Here I placed an image of a hungry child next to food we take for granted. I also included a cut from a recipe page in a magazine where someone talks about their food 'problem' which is a trivial dinner party issue, where in reality the real issue is the starving children that are in the background of life. 

 

Here I juxtaposed images of suffering adults and children with fashion week and everyday innovations such as cars and phones that we take for granted. 

 

I really enjoyed the collage workshop day. I enjoyed the process and I found the brief interesting the explore and I liked trying to find images to fit it. I hadn't collaged since I was younger and I felt like these pieces mean something, in comparison to just cutting and sticking when I was younger. We also looked at some interesting artists who incorporated collage into their work whom I would like to complete further research on.