Collage and Drawing at MARKING SPACE

Historically, collage has offered artists a means to directly engage with the visual refuse of their time. Through examining, re-organizing, and manipulating this imagery, collage presents a language through which to imagine and realize alternate worlds and relations. My final workshop at Skol's Drawing Research lab aimed to explore collage and its relationship to drawing and imagination in a series of collaborative exercises. 

Participants were thrown into a 2-hour whirlwind of "life-size" collage.  Using large, found and generated materials, projected lights and images, participants were asked to work in sets of twos: one drawer, one collager. As one drew, the other collaged, creating a conversation between the "real" (found images) and the "imagined" (the self-generated). But as we gained momentum, distinctions became less obvious. Students placed translucent colors on overhead projectors, collaging a mood over an entire scene. Drawers traced projected images, while others cut-up and re-assembled it all. The difference between the found and the made, between collage and drawing, became unclear and unimportant as students freed themselves up to build upon each others work. The end result presents a patchwork of invented narratives and layered imaginings from what was a very uninhibited group.