HELLO EVERYONE,
You asked, we listened.
Some of you get too many emails and newsletter. Others would like to hear from us in French instead of English. And a select few don’t want to hear from us at all anymore (there is an Unsubscribe button at the bottom of every email we send out ↓) All of you are fed up with missing things on Instagram though, so our newsletter is evolving.
If you are reading the web version of this newsletter (open in browser), you may have noticed that the links at the top of this page have changed. We removed everything that was leading back to our website (we figure that’s where you probably came from in the first place, besides, links to different parts of our website are liberally inserted everywhere whenever we get a chance) and added two new links, aptly called Short Cut and Crew Cut (please excuse the tortured puns, but we deal in collages after all).
Short Cut is the name of our new, most likely monthly, newsletter about all things Paris Collage Collective – open calls, exhibitions, workshops, meetups, etc. - and will be published in both English and French. There is no fixed schedule – no news means no newsletter – but it’s highly unlikely that there will be more than one a month, sometimes only one per quarter. It’s PCC news, nothing else.
Crew Cut is the name of our new, most likely weekly add-on newsletter with interviews with fellow collage artists. Some of you might remember our old online magazine. Crew Cut will essentially be the same but in a hybrid online/newsletter form. You can read it without subscribing by going there directly via our website (by clicking on the Collage Spamouflage link in the main menu), or you can subscribe to it and get it sent straight to your inbox.
Before you get scared by the idea of two more newsletters, this is not a ploy to send you more emails (unless you want them of course) but an attempt to give you a choice. Per default, everyone who is currently subscribed to Collage Spamouflage will also receive the other two newsletters, but there should be a way to subscribe to and unsubscribe from each section individually. New subscribers should have a choice right from the beginning. Things should become clearer once we start sending out the new newsletters. Shoulda, woulda, coulda.. In the meantime, please bear with us while we figure out the different settings.
And now the latest collage news and inspiration.
Enjoy!
Substack, this here newsletter platform, offers paid subscriptions, but this is no paywall. We believe in making art accessible to the widest possible audience, and our newsletter will remain free for anyone to read. Opting for a paid subscription is a way to support the collective and all we do. So is signing up to our Artist Directory. Think about it :)
NEWS
Pons has been creating collage art for over 30 years, finding particular inspiration in working with paper and books. Many of his materials are donated by his followers, while others he sources through donations and thrift stores - Artist Constructs Portraits of Famous Faces by Stacking Thousands of Books - via My Modern Met
In 1959, Marcel Duchamp curated Mina Loy’s final solo show. The exhibition at Bodley Gallery in New York City featured Loy’s groundbreaking collages from the 1940s and early 1950s, which were made of rags, cardboard, egg cartons, and other discarded materials picked up around the Bowery, where the artist had lived. Called “shocking and macabre” by a contemporary reviewer from Arts Magazine, Loy’s works predated the celebrated assemblages of artists like Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg - The World Is Finally Ready for Mina Loy - via Hyperallergic
The artist, who is 83, has been deploying symbols of American empire and Native identity in her work for decades, turning oil and acrylic paint, charcoal, prints, installation, and collage into wry political commentaries on post-genocidal existence. In Indian Madonna Enthroned, from 1974, her visual grammar emerges as a kind of three-dimensional collage using materials such as dried corn, pheasant wings, and beaded hide moccasins to create a figure of a Native woman sitting on a wooden chair and clutching the book God Is Red with an American flag on her lap - Jaune Quick-to-See Smith Can’t Believe She’s Still the First
Not even the art world could make her lose her sense of humor - via Vulture
Since fleeing Iran in the face of war at age seven, Ashkan Honarvar has never felt directly connected to any of the places he’s lived in. His collages meditate on those years in Iran, but rather than trying to explore war in a literal way, or violence itself, his work explores human nature, and our response to that violence. He tells writer Dalia Al-Dujaili how his work ruminates on things that affect people worldwide: on the sense of being uprooted, on identity, and on the complex connection between people and nature - Ashkan Honarvar — Collages meditating on war, violence, and the human condition - via WePresen
Each of the 310 collages comprising Land Sea and Sky, the McCoys’ first joint NFT collection which launched on April 6 (and is now sold out), reads like a mesmeric memory of a transcontinental journey. It’s all there—the tawny Midwestern flats, the candy floss clouds, the cascading cliffs, the cheap roadside lodging, the snow-tipped mountains—only these aren’t sun-tinged Polaroids dug out of a shoebox and digitized, but the products of an A.I. art generator - How Artists Jennifer and Kevin McCoy’s First Joint NFT Series Reimagines American Landscapes With A.I. - via artnet
PCC: The catalogue for our Rachid Taha Open Call is finally, finally out and available here
PCC: A selection of challenge submissions from last week is up on our website and can be seen here, the image prompt for next week is available to download here
FROM THE ARTIST DIRECTORY - OLD & NEW
Elizabeth Wood
My name is Elizabeth Wood and I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada. My art work explores the underlying, personal narratives that share a universality of themes: vulnerability, loss, resilience, and hope.
In my work I explore the notion of a private self where thoughts and emotions unfold like ever-changing weather patterns often in strong divergence with the public self we show to the world.
This theme was very much influenced my early childhood experience as an orphan cut adrift and learning to navigate an unstable world shaped by powerful emotions. My interior self - the self I kept to myself - became a safe haven from which I could observe and react to the world around me.
The separation between the private and the public self continues to be of compelling interest to me. I make art as a way of investigating aspects of that complex dichotomy for the sake of recognition and connection with others. More here
João Pedro Nunes
Art and anti-formalism: Collage as a mixed way of dematerializing elements and re-materializing them with love.
The formalism in the encounter with the “classical” forms of art denotes two things: rigidity and respect. There must be respect because there is a whole history, contextualization and transforming intentions of the world contained in the history of art, in its movements and currents, which must be cherished. But respecting does not mean being hostage to specific techniques or currents.
And that's why rigidity, in my opinion, doesn't make sense. We don't need to know all the techniques to create something new on a canvas. We don't even need to attend more or less intellectual gatherings to write a story. We don't need to dress up, suit and tie, to read poetry or put on a monocle and brush our beard to go to the movies.
So why should we feel that there is cultural, social elitism when we appreciate art?
Art must be uncomplicated to make, and it can still be complex to interpret. And Art should be always open to multiple sources of inspiration, not necessarily starting from academic learning. Inspiration can come from a book, a series, a song, a phrase, a conversation, a child´s absurd idea, a color or a fraction of light.
It is the intersection, the overlap or even the exclusion of ideas that allows us to arrive at different concepts.
Art should be part of our daily lives. With wonder and curiosity. Practiced and experienced daily. If art transforms the world, only in this way will it be democratized and reach a greater number of people.
This is why collage collectives (and art collectives) have a HUGE VALUE and importance. Because they bring creators closer to each other, in a logic of positivity, and strengthen the connection between artists and the community in general. A comment from a layman is worth as much as a comment from a fellow artist. And everyone is welcome.
Specifically, collagists are a kind of sublime artist. When we interact with each other it is always highly rewarding. More here
Esther Torres
Profesora de Música y bailarina en la actualidad, mi afición por la fotografía encontró una ampliación de miras a través del collage como expresión artística, dando dimensiones caprichosas a lo que ya me ofrecía la realidad por sí misma.
Actualmente resido en Málaga aunque disfruto al máximo de viajar y recopilar escenas y materiales que me inspiren.
Adoro la fotografía antigua, y me nutro constantemente de ella para mis trabajos, donde mezclo técnicas mixtas, explorando nuevos resultados. Creo que nunca terminaré de aprender, y dejarme llevar por ese camino me resulta fascinante. More here
Aaron Giles
My artwork is inspired by weird and wonderful music, travel, fashion, film, art, and people. I like to create detailed and inviting worlds that I would want to step into. I work in both the analog and digital realm, but creating collages by hand and using vintage ephemera truly fills my heart with joy. More here
If you have any news about exhibitions, publications or events you want so share with the community, please send an email with all relevant information and at least one link to a website or venue to: hello@pariscollagecollective.com