309 – palindromic perspective
Paper, photographic elements and fabric
227mm x 145mm
I am pleased to say that “#Collage365 – a year of scissors & glue” is going to be seen by a new audience. For Every Cloud in Langport will be showing a selection from the year’s work from 16th March to 16th April 2016 with a Private View 12noon to 2.30pm Saturday 12 March.
For those who don’t know the project started back in March 2013, on a day when I had visited the Kurt Schwitters show at Tate Britain for the second time, I got caught by the tweets of Canadian artist Patti Agapi. Patti had decided to do a collage a day for a year and already she was producing some great little pieces.
Why would I take this on? In all my years I rarely used collage or even assemblage (I trained as a sculptor). Most likely I had done less than 20 bits of collage in my life! Well that sounded like a pretty good reason I suppose. It wouldn’t do me any harm to try something new. In any case, my work had begun to include found items and manipulated paper forms.
Another thing is I hate committing myself to anything much really – even things I really want to do! So it was quite a big thing for me to make a public commitment (posted on Twitter & a blog) to produce a small work each day for a year: 365 images one after another on a daily basis. I was clearly a little deranged to tackle such a project!
Patti’s criteria were “a small collage a day, every day for a year…abstract, mixed media, bits of paper & scribbles.” At first I did not confine myself to a particular size and I wasn’t so sure about only abstract or just bits of paper! My definition of collage was pretty loose: paper, scissors and glue was normally involved and daubing and scribbling were definitely allowed. The aim at first was small and quick. But immediately I took each piece very seriously and although I did soon settle on a small size, 6″ x 9″, I wasn’t successful with the quick!
362 – I see
Printed and photographic elements 145mm x 227mm
Before long there were 9 of us round the world using the hashtag #Collage365, posting a collage a day and encouraging each other. Not everyone finished the task, though I am pleased to say that some did including me. A representative selection of these works is being shown at For Every Cloud here and the full 365 can be seen in the gallery.
Scissors and Glue comes from a light-hearted ditty I wrote covering the art history of collage. I had been working with a mental health peer support group, incorporating creative writing and art, and on one occasion someone suggested our “homework” should be “something like Francesca did”. Francesca had brought in a complex, highly textured collage she had created. I didn’t do a collage but I wrote the poem, “Something Like Francesca Did”, which you can read on the Scissors & Glue blog
For Every Cloud, Bow Street. Langport. Somerset TA10 9PR
Tel: 01458 251475
16th March – 16th April
Wednesday – Friday 9-4pm, Saturday 9-2pm
Private view Saturday 12th March 12-2.30pm.