Thursday 24 November 2016

the vulnerability of empty spaces


From my old, old (2011) archives. People are always telling me my collages are "simple," I guess because I've made quite a few with just 2-5 elements, but in fact, I make many with lots of different stuff on them. I chose this one because it has "empty spaces" right there in the title--inspired by the empty signs and the empty look on the girl's face.

Photo of blonde by Lina Bertucci. Agave leaves by Jillian David. Empty signs by Jeff Brouus. Statue bits from "Laocoön and his Sons" by Gruppo del Laocoonte. (Believe it or not, there's a whole Flickr group devoted to just that one statue!) Mirror is a detail from a painting by Jan van Eyck.

Re. horror vacui: Art is aggressive, always attacking empty spaces--on walls, on canvas, usw. When I make a collage, I'm always aware of how each element not only encroaches on the empty space of plain cardboard, but also the successive elements attack (by overlapping) each other. In last week's fish collage, for example, I struggled for a long time to make sure that none of the fishes' eyes were covered up.

2 comments:

  1. Huh, I never thought any of your collages were simple or minimalist Fi. In fact your collages are easily recognizable and always replete with interesting and unexpected juxtapositions of images and drawing and writing. As is this one! And I like your explanations. You inspired me to sometimes explain the sources of my collage elements.

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  2. I love the title of this collage very much! The vulnerability of empty spaces .... you directly feel the lost and the loneliness as well.

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