THE WEEKENDER 51 | 2022
Collage News & Inspiration
Hello and welcome to the Holiday edition of the Weekender.
Not everyone celebrates Christmas, not all the people who do will be able to celebrate the way they would like to or with the people they love, but we don’t want to just ignore it but also don’t wan to offend or exclude, so we decided to stay away from the more traditional holiday wishes and to express our sentiments with a little poem instead. To take with a pinch of salt.
'Twas the night before Christmas and Santa's a wreck ...
How to live in a world that's politically correct?
His workers no longer would answer to "Elves",
"Vertically Challenged" they were calling themselves.
And labor conditions at the north pole
Were alleged by the union to stifle the soul.
Four reindeer had vanished, without much propriety,
Released to the wilds by the Humane Society.
And equal employment had made it quite clear
That Santa had better not use just reindeer.
So Dancer and Donner, Comet and Cupid,
Were replaced with 4 pigs, and you know that looked stupid!
The runners had been removed from his sleigh;
The ruts were termed dangerous by the E.P.A.
And people had started to call for the cops
When they heard sled noises on their roof-tops.
Second-hand smoke from his pipe had his workers quite frightened.
His fur trimmed red suit was called "Unenlightened."
And to show you the strangeness of life's ebbs and flows,
Rudolf was suing over unauthorized use of his nose
And had gone on Geraldo, in front of the nation,
Demanding millions in over-due compensation.
So, half of the reindeer were gone; and his wife,
Who suddenly said she'd enough of this life,
Joined a self-help group, packed, and left in a whiz,
Demanding from now on her title was Ms.
And as for the gifts, why, he'd ne'er had a notion
That making a choice could cause so much commotion.
Nothing of leather, nothing of fur,
Which meant nothing for him. And nothing for her.
Nothing that might be construed to pollute.
Nothing to aim. Nothing to shoot.
Nothing that clamored or made lots of noise.
Nothing for just girls. Or just for the boys.
Nothing that claimed to be gender specific.
Nothing that's warlike or non-pacific.
No candy or sweets...they were bad for the tooth.
Nothing that seemed to embellish a truth.
And fairy tales, while not yet forbidden,
Were like Ken and Barbie, better off hidden.
For they raised the hackles of those psychological
Who claimed the only good gift was one ecological.
No baseball, no football...someone could get hurt;
Besides, playing sports exposed kids to dirt.
Dolls were said to be sexist, and should be passé;
And Nintendo would rot your entire brain away.
So Santa just stood there, disheveled, perplexed;
He just could not figure out what to do next.
He tried to be merry, tried to be gay,
But you've got to be careful with that word today.
His sack was quite empty, limp to the ground;
Nothing fully acceptable was to be found.
Something special was needed, a gift that he might
Give to all without angering the left or the right.
A gift that would satisfy, with no indecision,
Each group of people, every religion;
Every ethnicity, every hue,
Everyone, everywhere...even you.
So here is that gift, it's price beyond worth...
"May you and your loved ones enjoy peace on earth."
(c) Harvey Ehrlich, 1992. Notice: This poem is copyright 1992 by Harvey Ehrlich (mduhan@husc.harvard.edu). It is free to distribute, without changes, as long as this notice remains intact.
Happy Holidays if you are celebrating, Happy Weekend if not!
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From his studio in The Netherlands, the artist cuts and splices vintage photos, magazines, postcards, and book pages into clever works that take an ironic and surreal approach to everyday activities. Everyday Situations Take an Amusing Turn in Toon Joosen’s Clever Collages - via Colossal
When I first saw Blair Saxon-Hill’s assemblage installation at the 2021 New Museum Triennial Soft Water, Hard Stone, I instantly knew that I wanted to be in dialogue with this Portland-based artist. Upholding the Broken: Blair Saxon-Hill Interviewed by Ksenia M. Soboleva - Collage as shattering fixed notions of identity - via BOMB
I told him I wasn’t sure if collage making was the way to go, especially since I was into painting. Still he asked me not to overthink it, but to work on one. Asrama by artist Subra encapsulates the work of a lifetime - via The Hindu
I eventually want to go back to collage. I just got bored with it. I believe I did certain collages really, really well, to the point where I feel like a lot of people imitated me. Many, many artists are appropriators of self-taught artists. They come and see something, and they use it to their advantage. I want to tell them, Please go out there and make something original. You have to push yourself and make honest work, not work that tries to look like somebody else’s work. That’s my biggest pet peeve: people who have no originality and take things from artists who are marginalized—outsider artists—and end up gaining something from it. LSD Snowfall: An Interview with Uman - via The Paris Review
In an inspired pairing, the taboo-breaking 1960s and 70s work of these two British artists remains visceral and urgent today. On Sexuality: Helen Chadwick & Penny Slinger review – radical bodies - via The Guardian
Coffee culture: Starbucks brings Betsy Silverman's recycled magazine art to Harvard Square - via art daily
And as always a little reminder: our weekly creative challenge prompts remain free to download and the challenges themselves open for everyone to join, but if you prefer to work with paper, our 2023 Workbook is out and available here
And last but not least, 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
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
Thank you for all that you do! Happy Holidays to PCC. Looking forward to a fresh year of inspiration via the weekly challenge.