What Is Collage?
Collage is a form of art that involves creating a whole new work by assembling small pieces of other things together.
Collage became a globally important art form at the beginning of the 20th century as a reaction to the strict conventions of earlier art movements – within modern art, the idea of de-constructing and reconstructing imagery into new forms took on great power.
Materials needed when working with collage
Collage can be made from magazines, photographs, newspapers, or really any visual format that lends itself to being de-constructed, either through tearing or cutting. The medium on which collages are formed is very flexible – paper, wood, or really any solid surface can be used. When using paper, simple glue sticks are an excellent way to attach our disparate pieces to the background medium, but when using other materials for a background, it may be necessary to research an appropriate adhesive online.
Techniques for Collage
An excellent starting point for collage is to assemble materials on the basis of color. You can create color gradients by tearing pages out of magazines, for example:
This process can occur even before the initial idea for the final collage takes place- indeed, organizing what we have to work with can illuminate possibilities and constraints and inform our direction.
This process allows us to get a sense of how to orient very disparate torn or cut pieces in relation to a new piece; by looking at color and line, we can organize our thoughts and create a plan – are we creating something concrete and recognizable, in which darker shades can be used for shadow? Are we trying to create a certain mood or feeling that certain shades lend themselves to? Which pieces can be used to create the lines we want to emerge in our new piece?
Once we have an idea and a plan, the next step is to lay out our pieces the way we want on our background medium without any adhesive:
This allows us to move pieces creatively and let the process of free expression take place without the constraints of permanence.
Once the piece has reached its peak potential, we can glue the pieces down to our background medium one-by-one.
And VOILA:
Themed collage can be used to work with meaning making and social critique. Two examples are exploring themes through the imagery contained in materials:
or de-constructing and parodying media imagery :
