Collage
Collage
Collage
Collage
This collage series is what began a new contextual practice for me. Consisting of found objects from my home that represent the cross-over of two opposing cultures within my life- England and Ireland. I began with obvious 'cultural signifiers' such as the 'feck' fridge magnet and the union Jack beer mat. I scanned each object in and printed them as they were.
Overall collage research
Research
Hannah Starkey
Cultural templates : signifiers, identifiers.
'Discomforting pauses' - consider photography as pauses - comforting or discomforting. Discomforting to reflect confusion and inner conflict whilst also nodding towards obvious political conflict of the cultures.
Comforting : pausing to hold onto moments in time, holding onto places etc.
Nowicka's study on dual heritage children:
how confusion translates through generations.
(click)
Research into artists who study crossovers of aspects of life.
Fatimah Tuggar:
she deciphers her ‘relationships to place, home, and self.’ Similarly to me, through the creation of collage, she portrays the cross-over of two opposing cultures, in her case American and African. Her use of imagery in her work is significant for explaining the context behind the pieces; she chooses both her own photographs and found imagery that portray stereotypical characteristics of the two cultures she is presenting.
By doing so, she is using the concept of two separate collective social identities as a way to individualise her own. Due to the composition of this piece in the careful but ambiguous placing of the objects, it requires to viewer to look deeper into the image to notice the aspects of each culture. This can reference her own view of her identity and possibly her own confusion as to which she feels a stronger connection to. It is important to notice that when observing which objects are from which culture, that there isn’t a clear ‘50/50’ split in the amount of objects yet there also isn’t a dominant
Admittedly, I struggled to find a contemporary artist who creates work based on their transnational identity whilst being specific to English-Irish heritage. The lack thereof, however, has propelled my incentive to continue to develop my work along this topic and to delve even deeper into the Irish diaspora and the effects it has had on following generations. I did, however, come across a poet whose parents were English and Irish and he grew up in Dublin.
Ewart Milne may not have used a tactile artistic practice, however poetry is widely regarded to be within ‘the arts’ so I trust that a poem from his book ‘Time Stopped’ (Milne, 1967) holds significance. He claims ‘The English see I am not English/To the Irish I am Anglo’ (Milne, 1967), suggesting that no matter how he feels about his belonging, it is decided for him by either group.
Having no control over where people place you is a difficult thing to overcome, especially if they decide you apply to neither category.
Process
Repetition of the same cultural 'signifiers', experimenting with a new form of collage: digital. Experimenting with Photoshop.
Accidental assemblage - influential for final collage series
Returned to physical handmade collage as I believe I am stronger at that - I prefer the physical process and using paper and a scalpel as material - there's something that feels meticulous about it and I like that I have to spend time with the materials I am using the manipulate them into what I want.