Grids, Rulers, and Prozess
The next collage project I’m thinking about is a “Collage Kiste”. It’s a cross between a DIY project, a walkthrough of how I think about making a collage, and an excuse for me to work differently than I usually do. My normal collage process is to put on some headphones, surround myself with a selection of old papers, turn up the music, and see what happens. It’s a lot of fun and it’s very cathartic. If the abstract expressionists were “action painters”, then I’m something of an “action collagist”. For this project I want to challenge that - at least for parts of the process.
I’m treating the project like an exercise, with repeatable steps, and a framework. The first part of the framework is the grid.
I gave myself the rule that it should be a simple grid, made by three lines describing four quadrants. The idea of repeatedly using a single grid and finding variation by changing the contents is about playing with constraints and finding solutions inside them. Working in Procreate on my iPad, I sketched a couple pages of grids, then winnowed them down to three, which I sat with, redrew in my sketchbook a few times, and then asked for input on. It turns out, “which grid do you like best?” is a vague question. Still, Caroline picked the one that was also my favorite - on the left in the last photo above - and it was time to get started.
At this point I wasn’t sure what the final collage size would be. 9cm x 12,75cm and 12cm x 17cm were in the running. Both of these fit nicely on a sheet of A4 paper, which is important because part of what I want to do here is demystify the process and the materials. A4 is the most common paper size in Europe (and is pretty close to Letter size paper in the US). I built two dummy collages using scrap paper to test them out. While I was working in Procreate, I free-handed the sketches, but for these dummies I worked more precisely. I quartered each shape, than quartered each quarter, leading to 16 grid units. Each of the four collage elements is a combination of these units, 2x2, 1x2, 1x4, and 4x4.
After building both the collage dummy in both sizes, I much preferred the smaller size. I set it inside two different mattes, and much preferred the larger matte. Our “master” is built. The collages will be on A4 paper, 9cm x 12,75cm, and sitting within a 24cm x 30 cm matte. Then as a test run of the grid, I built it four times using the same four scrap papers in different sizes.
As of today, the title for the Collage Kiste is “Vol. 01: How to build a collage”. If this experiment is successful, the follow-up “Vol. 02: Why to build a collage” may follow. Caroline asked me a good question about the project, “who’s the audience?” The most honest answer is that the audience is me. If I’m forced to think about each of these steps and explain them (to you, but really to me), I’ll end up with a better understanding of what I’m up to when I throw on the headphones and start glueing papers in a frenzy.