The word ‘collage’ has for a long time conjured up images of my younger self enthusiastically attacking old magazines, ripping faces out of the newspaper and uniting them indiscriminately under healthy blobs of glitter glue, feathers, fabric scraps and whatever else I could find. The anything-goes appeal of collage has always been undeniable, and has been beautifully explored by more grown-up artists as well as my littler cousins.
In a culture where we’re trying desperately to recycle and re-use the things we accumulate, an art form which encourages you to do exactly that seems incredibly relevant. The use of found objects and recycled surfaces in art simultaneously plays to our concerns about a throwaway society and creates works layered with meaning; re-using images or scraps creates something fresh while still inviting the viewer to consider old uses and contexts. Images become part of other images; maps converge upon imaginary places; books say new things and headlines suddenly speak for different pictures, creating an intriguing dialogue between the ‘new’ work and its diverse components. Collage artists like Matthew Cusick use this richness to their advantage, selecting their materials to enhance the images they create. In Cusick’s visual world, a vast wave spills over with maps of different seas (Fiona’s Wave, 2005) to reveal an array of underwater
In a culture where we’re trying desperately to recycle and re-use the things we accumulate, an art form which encourages you to do exactly that seems incredibly relevant. The use of found objects and recycled surfaces in art simultaneously plays to our concerns about a throwaway society and creates works layered with meaning; re-using images or scraps creates something fresh while still inviting the viewer to consider old uses and contexts. Images become part of other images; maps converge upon imaginary places; books say new things and headlines suddenly speak for different pictures, creating an intriguing dialogue between the ‘new’ work and its diverse components. Collage artists like Matthew Cusick use this richness to their advantage, selecting their materials to enhance the images they create. In Cusick’s visual world, a vast wave spills over with maps of different seas (Fiona’s Wave, 2005) to reveal an array of underwater
cartography from different eras and parts of the world, while above another such ocean (Leviathan, 2008) inky constellation-splattered Biblical figures occupy the heavens. His collages range from these huge, mythical land and seascapes to the strange car-and-flower splices to be found in his Happy Endings series, created entirely of magazine clippings pasted onto panels and depicting what could be several horrific crashes- or, as suggested by titles such as Crown of Creation, some strange melding of nature and machinery.
The mixture of the completely imaginary with the full-colour realism of materials such as maps and photographs is really beautifully explored by Cusick- and, indeed, by some of the artists in our very own Blake gallery (take a look!). You can also see more of Cusick’s work here: http://www.mattcusick.com.
