utility of collage: 2009/10 statement

collage is useful in talk about the now. considering the ubiquity of advertisement, considering the solicitous affect of glossy pages of saturated ink, on targeted audiences; considering the topical and transient, fading nature of fashionable new ways of telling old stories; images wrangled together on one of my pages are have no choice but to please the eye. they are prefabricated. engineered to be not only accessible to broad audiences, but seductive. the perfect vehicle for reflective critique.

borrowed images in juxtaposition function in a way akin to the vernacular use of language. rad. dope. the cool talk is all impossibly hot – then cold. it is a descriptive, not explanatory effort; allegorical, and culturally situated, by necessity. the elements of collage are of temporary currency like raffle tickets at a pep rally. after today, they are relics. dripping with nostalgia, and quiet resentments over tacky prizes never won.

the heat of sentiment is so stark in its aftermath, even to participants. i find it fascinating to observe and to mark the heights of such moments. and to reevaluate them in the cold light of a new context