[130] Jon Nelson - USA

[130]  OM.2011.222 - Jon Nelson - USA - collage

Gift of the artist

Jon Nelson is a collage/assemblage artist who hosted the nationally syndicated radio program Some Assembly Required from 1999-2011. Jon also donated a complete collection of CDs of his shows to the museum. listen here while you check out this blog:  http://www.blog.some-assembly-required.net/
You can see some of Jon's  visual work at: http://www.mnartists.org/jonathan_nelson
and for information about his sound collage work, go to: http://www.escape-mechanism.com/

Some Assembly Required features work by a variety of artists working with bits and pieces of their media environments, giving something back to the cultural landscape from which they so enthusiastically appropriate.

The genre is still young, despite examples dating as far back as 1961, when James Tenney constructed a tape collage borrowing heavily from cut-up fragments of a recording by Elvis Presley. Both provocative and surreal, this style continues to evolve and to challenge.

Since its inception in 1999, host Jon Nelson produced over thirty artist features, interviewing everyone from John Oswald and The Evolution Control Committee, to Christian Marclay and DJ Spooky - providing a variety of unique perspectives on the nature of this daring and creative style of expression.

Each Interview Episode is freely available to download HERE. Also check out the SAR Q&A, featuring profiles on over 175 of the sound collage artists played each week on Some Assembly Required.

[128] D.S.H. Watson - USA

D.S.H. Watson - USA

[Flux4-028] Game: Screw People; Take Their Money

felt lined wooden box with small screw driver, screw, dropper with money inside, Instructions.

Description: game box containing gaming pieces:

1. screw
2. screwing device
3. money extractor

Origin: Fluxhibition #4 - 2010

[129] Susanne Thing Skene - Canada

om.2012.027 - Susanne Thing Skene  - Canada - Japanese Koi Garden - collage

om.2012.028 - Susanne Thing Skene  - Canada - Inner Demons - collage

[127] Fluxus Laboratories - International

Fluxus Laboratories International - The Wonders of Plastic Surgery #001 - 2010 - Digital photo montage using vintage high school yearbook photographs

[126] Cecil Touchon - USA

Cecil Touchon - USA - The Patron - collage with vintage magazine papers

[125] Marianne Lettieri USA

Marianne Lettieri - USA - 2008 - "Shelf Life -  Homage to Hannalore Baron." assemblage

Origin: 2008 exhibition Under the Influence at the Longview Art Museum 

My mixed media constructions quietly protest a world so fast-paced and confrontational that the enchantment of everyday life is often missed. I work with the articulate and economical imagery of cultural detritus to create art that inspires thoughts about grace, gratitude, and introspection.

The materials that make their way into my assemblages are rich in history and pathos: architectural elements, vintage documents, animal cages, and remnants of domestic arts, toys, and fashion. I will often select an object because of its obvious metaphor or symbol, incorporating its voice as a form of shorthand for social commentary about who we are and how we live.

[124] Christian Gastaldi - France

OM.2011.202 - Christian Gastaldi - France - 33 x 24 cm - 13x9.5 inches - collage

http://christiangastaldi.centerblog.net

Artist Statement

 

Of flesh and blood
Opened by scars
The inner fluids
Rush.
Words
Thrown on the wall
As if calling
For a last gasp.
If one of the brightest facets
Of beauty was
Rhythm of a sentence.
In Art,
The quest 

Of surpassing balance.

[123] Angela Davies - United Kingdom

 OM.2009.016 - Angela Davies -United Kingdom - Collage with found materials and sewn threads

http://www.angeladaviesartist.co.uk/

[122] Cecil Touchon - USA

Cecil Touchon - USA - Fusion Series #1074 - 1997 - 28x24 inches

[121] Gregory Steel - USA

Gregory Steel - USA - Pop - 2007 - construction - plywood, plastic resin, diaper pin, white point

[from the 2007 exhibition White on White at the Fort Worth Arts Center ]

[120] Gary Bibb - USA

Gary A. Bibb - USA - Sustaining Balance - 2007 - collage on paper

[from the 2007 exhibition White on White at the Fort Worth Arts Center ] 

[118 & 119] Cory Celaya - USA

Cory Celaya - USA - Untitled - 2007 -  4x10 inches each

encaustic collage on wood - encaustic wax, paper and foil

[from the 2007 exhibition White on White at the Fort Worth Arts Center ]  

 

[117] Marie Stockhill - USA

 Marie Stockhill - USA - I Once was White - 2007 - collage with antique papers

[from the 2007 White on White exhibition - this images used for the cover of the catalog]

[116] Chris Mulart - USA

Chris Mulart - USA - White Construction - c.1991 - 24x22 inches - wood with white paint

Origin: Purchased by Cecil Touchon from William Campbell Contemporary Art Gallery. 
Used in the 2007 White on White exhibition

[114, 115] Caranovic Predrag - Serbia

Caranovic Predrag - Serbia - antique photograph in a gold frame from Serbia - 4.5x6.5 inches

"I bought this picture of Gypsies in the market. At that moment I was reminded of a work by Man Ray. A few years later I realized it's probably a factory for the production bamboo hats. But I do not care. For me, this like exhibition of nothing. This is a picture in a frame kolage. This is the story of the photograph." - Caranovic Predrag

Caranovic Predrag - Serbia - 'Bullshit ...Unexpected Experience'
materials: wooden box with latch, printed matter, red velvetine fabric,
bullshit encased in a half sphere of resin
[from Fluxhibition #4 -016] 

I started the path of classical sculpture, since 1974; over the time transfer myself to Object Art. But for the last few years I have become closer to Assemblage. Now I started a new direction, from something that I have called Essays sculpture.
The shown image is montage of my effort to try to point to the possibility of assembling the frame as I am recognized.

[111, 112, 113] Dilar Pereira - Portugal

[2010.035, 036, 037] Dilar Pereira - Portugal - Three untitled ink drawings of collages

From Baker's Dozen Collage Exchange #10

http://dailycollageproject.blogspot.com/

[110] - Kathleen McHugh - USA

OM.2012.026 - Kathleen McHugh - USA - Box Assemblage
Size: 3.5 x 3.5 x 2. - Media: Watercolor, dyes, acrylic, ink and pastel on Asian papers, and blown egg / with peacock feather.

mchughart.net

Statement:


My introduction to collage and assemblage as a serious art happened in a workshop I took with Betye Saar (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6688207 ) Seeing 'The Liberation of Aunt Jemima,' learning the story behind the inspiration of the work, and how the medium of assemblage itself is the carrier of the message, is a formative influence in how I approach this art form. In addition to sharing her own artistry, Saar was a wealth of knowledge in visual language and techniques. The experience with her ended on the note of "go dumpster diving, rummaging, and while sifting through ephemera find your own aesthetic and voice". In the early 1980's during the time I was in her class, a dominant influence in the arts was minimalism. The drive seemed to be to eliminate anything superfluous. IE., Get rid of the wing of the bird, and keep the curve. It seemed as if anything visceral and tactile was a cheap trick or distraction from "real art". Real music didn't have a melody, real visual art didn't have lush painterly sensuality, and real architecture forgot about its relationship to human scale. Assemblage and collage seemed like air and water to me, necessary for the life and survival of the human element of artmaking within the larger dry desert of intellectual art. This box assemblage is created in memory of the emotion I felt when first seeing assemblage: assemblages and collages as visual melodies and carriers of humanistic expression and communication.  

 

[109]- K. S. Ernst - USA

OM.2012.025 - K. S. Ernst - USA - "The Sound of My Voice" - Shadow box assemblage
http://ksernst.com/home.html

[108] - Diane Schapira - USA

OM.2011.214 - Diane Schapira - USA -  - "Reflections on Allusions to Memory"  Box Assemblage
This assemblage is created in a wooden cigar box. It includes both found and created objects.

Artist Statement

An assemblage is created by accretion/layering which creates the opportunity for:

• shadows and reflections
• magic spaces
• architecture
• mechanical invention

An assemblage can tell a story: I am telling a story. There are personal references and talismanic objects.
Assemblage can include the delight of the found and the chosen.
I can use objects literally, constructively, decoratively; as metaphors, symbols, aides-memoire.
Paint, paper, marker, fabric, nature: assemblage is all accepting.

[107] Scott Gordon - USA

[107]  OM.2009.044 - Scott Gordon - USA - 2009 - collage on board

http://www.hooksepsteingalleries.com/artists/thb_gordon.shtml

[106] Tony Romano - USA

OM.2011.110 - Tony Romano - USA - Found Object Frame - Assemblage - 10.5x8.5x3 inches

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyromano/sets/72157594472580766/

acquired by Cecil Touchon

[104 & 105] Marci Ness - USA

OM.2012.005 - Marci Ness - USA - collage - 6x4 inches

OM.2012.006 - Marci Ness - USA - collage - 6x4 inches
title: It's Still a Dry Heat

[102 &103] - Jane Peterson - USA

OM.2012.003 - Jane Peterson - USA - collage - 4x6 inches

OM.2012.004 - Jane Peterson - USA - collage - 4x6 inches

[100 &101] - Judy Schumann - USA

OM.2012.002 - Judy Schumann - USA - collage - 4x6 inches




OM.2012.001 - Judy Schumann - USA - collage - 4x6 inches

[099] - Gail D. Whitter - Canada

OM.2012.017 -  Gail D. Whitter -  Canada - collage - 4x6 inches

[097 & 098] - Annette Geistfeld - USA

 OM.2012.015 Annette Geistfeld - USA - 'Primavera' - postcard sized collage - 6x4 inches

 OM.2012.016 Annette Geistfeld - USA - 'Haiku' - postcard sized collage - 6x4 inches

ARTIST STATEMENT:
Collage allows total freedom of expression without boundaries or limits.  What bliss!

[095 & 096] Margaret Suchland - USA

 OM.2012.010 - Margaret Suchland - USA - Postcard Collage - 4x6 inches

OM.2012.011 - Margaret Suchland - USA - Postcard Collage - 4x6 inches

http://margaretsuchland.com/

STATEMENT:
I'm attracted to collage because it is truly a universal language.  Collage making is something I can do anywhere and doesn't require costly materials.  Creating a collage can be as simple as tearing up old magazines and pasting together images to say something new. This process allows me to create new realities.  It's magical and it is the randomness, playfulness and the unexpected results found in joining unrelated items that excite me.  Collage goes against predictability. I enjoy the spontaneity and the feeling of complete freedom that it allows me.

[094] Margaret Suchland - USA

OM.2011.207 - Margaret Suchland - USA - Lexicon 2011 - 4x6 (framed 11x14)
materials used: vintage early 20th c. dictionary pages digitally printed with
early alphabet characters, misc. remnants from a discarded 18th c. Psalter and
other ephemera

www.margaretsuchland.com

[093] - Scott Gordon - USA

OM.2008.003 - Scott Gordon - USA - 2007 - collage on panel

[092] Eva Eun-Sil Han - Belgium

 OM.2008.018 - Eva Eun-Sil Han - Belgium - Touche - 2007 - collage on paper - 9x12 inches

http://evahan.weebly.com/

This is a antique book illustration with collage elements. The work takes on a surrealistic dynamic from the artist cleverly turning the illustration upside down and using the plume of smoke as if a billowing sleeve for the female hand element thus deemphisizng the gravity of the landscape and increasing the spiritual aspect by the hand materializing out of the smoke gently touching the opening of a rose. Perhaps a comment on a female twist of Michaelangelo's famous scene of God touching the hand of Adam, infusing him with life. The rose in this case representing Eve perhaps.



About the Artist

Eva Eun-Sil Han was born in Korea where she lived for 27 years.  She was first introduced to collage in primary school. As a child she loved to play with papers, like “drawing paper, paper dolls, cutting them out, making their outfits.” She studied for two years at the Design Institute of Graphic Art in Seoul, Korea and one year at the L’Atelier d’Art de la Grange des Champs, Belgium.
Only [recently], when Eva Eun-Sil Han encountered the collages of Max Ernst did she start to use collage as a means of artistic expression. In her work she combines material from any kind of ready-made mass media, such as newspapers, magazines or old books. Eva Han prefers to use knife and glue rather than working with pixels on a computer screen, because it allows her to touch, feel and smell the different source papers. Especially old paper smells good to her.
To Eva Han, the appeal of collage lies in the fact that you can combine “idiosyncratic elements in one single space. And also use juxtaposition of ready-made images transposed into artistic compositions without cohesive syntax.”
Collage gives her unlimited room for imagination: “I don’t need any preparations – all I need is my Exacto knife, scissors, glue and papers and my subconscious mind. With the collage the unexpected happens.”

[091] Gary Bibb - USA

 

OM.2012.124 - Gary A. Bibb - 2012 - "Nota Bene - 562" - collage w/ mixed media
     4.5" x 3.625"

garyabibb-art.blogspot.com


    

[090] Gary Bibb - USA

  OM.2012.023 - Gary Bibb - 2012 -  "Black Twine #14" -  found object construction (or assemblage) -  4.25" x 3.25" x 1" 

garyabibb-art.blogspot.com

    

[089] Rob Angus - Australia

OM.2012.122 - Rob Angus - Australia - Triptych of Smiles - 2011 -  Collage construction - H 7” x W 13 ¼” x D 1 ½” - Materials: Paper covered, recycled picture frame with applied beads, photos, batik and
other found objects.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I use collage to collect and preserve personal memorabilia, images, and
found objects that reflect my life and views. I hope my constructions share my experiences and
perceptions with the public, and pay homage to the artists of imagination who inspire me.

[088] - Nikki Soppelsa - USA

Om.2012.021 - Nikki Soppelsa - USA - 'I Made This!' - collage - 7.25 x 13.75 inches
Antique/cabinet photo, prepared/found papers, ephemera, beeswax ... on bookboard.

http://NikkiSoppelsa.blogspot.com

Artist's Statement:

In the late 1960s, I made a few collages and can't remember what inspired me to begin. However, I do remember tearing up magazines, crumpling the images, soaking them in tea and scattering them over heated floors to dry. I still have them...they are my foundation. I returned to collage in 2009 and since, am always in the process of doing.

Working with ongoing series which sometimes include my photography, I enjoy combining the art along with often a subtle humor, my own love and collection of ephemera, early photographs, and am intrigued by what can come from the scraps created from my other collages. All of this, its components spanning 100 years, comes together in this piece, 'I Made This!' ... inspired by the centennial.

Nikki Soppelsa
01.2012

[087] - Matthew Rose - France

  

 OM.2012.020  - Matthew Rose - France - Queen Rose Score - collage

 

OM.2012.020 Back - Matthew Rose - France - Queen Rose Score 

Medium: Collage on paper, 2012.

Size: 9 x 12 inches.

Website: http://matthewrosestudio.net/

http://matthewroseartworks.blogspot.com/

[086] David Dellafiora - Australia

OM.2012.019 - David Dellafiora - Australia - "Tip Top - As Seen on TV" - matchbox collage

http://daviddellafiora.blogspot.com/

Artist Statement

I view collage as a form of magick. To quote Comte de Lautréamont, “Chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella”. Many of the my collages use juxtaposition to create effect, image and text, sign and signifier. Objects are brought together with the process of making of these strange marriages left visible. My collages are not seamless , rather they create their alchemy from the raw materials of the world.

[084 & 085] Liz Yates - United Kingdom

OM.2012.018 - Liz Yates - United Kingdom - Collage with prepared papers - 8x10 inches

Artist Statement
website www.ravenart.co.uk

My work is about expressing how something makes me ‘feel’ rather than solely
the way it ‘looks’. I am also interested in the way the subconscious mind interprets
images. The fragments I find from everyday life, both man-made and from nature
become a starting point in my work, providing inspiration or forming an integral part
within the work. I believe that by using real life fragments combined with my own
creativity, the work conveys layers of meaning which blur the boundaries between art
and life.

I have always been a collector of interesting objects and it seemed a natural
progression that found objects would become part of my work. The creation of
Collage and Assemblage provides an endless opportunity for the re-combination and
layering of materials, inviting new interpretations.

My magpie hoard is full of old books, papers, tickets, feathers, driftwood, textiles,
stones, glass, rusty metal pieces, old sheet music and more. The signs of wear and tear
and the passing of time produce marks which sometimes tell the story of their history.
I ponder the life cycle of these items, looking back to where they may have begun
their journey, how a seed became a tree that grew and was once part of a forest. After
the passage of many seasons, the tree was felled, processed and ultimately became
paper. Some of the paper was used to produce travel tickets, which touched the lives
of people so far away from its origins. I may find that ticket, discarded, blowing
around on a windy street until it lands at my feet and becomes part of my ‘store’ of
papers, eventually becoming incorporated into a new piece of work. I try to use as
many recycled materials as I can in my work. It feels like a kind of ‘alchemy’.

My work, for the last few years has been mainly collage and creating small
assemblages. The materials I gather provide inspiration but I also look to ancient
history and the natural world. I am drawn to the past, mysteries, and to the unseen
aspects of our lives, in the world in which we live. I am fascinated by myths and
legends, alchemy and magic. Some of my work explores life, beauty, light and dreams
whilst others have explored the darker aspects of our nature in the imagination and
nightmares. More recent concerns developing in my work have been around the
natural environment and ecological issues. Many new works reflect my feelings about
the natural world and our place in it.

Additional work in the Collection by Liz Yates

  OM.2009.012 Liz Yates - United Kingdom - Possession - 3x3 inches - assemblage - 2008

[083] Katrien De Blauwer - Belgium

 four collages in a single frame from "Poetic Noise"

 "Poetic Noise" OM.2011.213-A

 "Poetic Noise" OM.2011.213-B

 "Poetic Noise" OM.2011.213-C

 "Poetic Noise" OM.2011.213-D

OM.2011.213 - Katrien De Blauwer - Belgium
Four collages each postcard sized work is roughly 4x6 inches

Poetic Noise (2009-2011) Documents, photographs, leaves and other relics from the Republic of Georgia

Born in 1969 in Ronse, Belgium
Lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium
www.katriendeblauwer.com

ARTIST STATEMENT

Where must we hide when it comes from inside - J. Taylor

For as long as I can recall, I collect objects that draw my attention and
touch me deeply in an ultimate personal way. At first they appeared
as a random collection of endearing objects, drawings and little
paintings that later became a kind of visual diary to me. After a while,
I also began to tell corresponding stories bringing these objects even
more gently together. Thus doodling, I found - often unwillingly - new
meanings and associations within the emerging combinations of
objects, colors and words.
Later on I also began to realize, that certain painful experiences
somehow colored my life, thus emerged and appeared, unconsciously.
Perhaps that is also why each time I put something in my diary,
a thought, a fantasy, fragments of a dream, about a country, in a
sustained but gentle effort to taste, understand, and perhaps even
love that country with its specific culture, I feel as having emerged as
one with more gathered insight and new sense of meanings in the
shortfalls of that particular culture and so as I believe my own alleged
and assumed shortfalls.