Fragmented Lucidity: The Art of Collage and Photomontage
© Katrien De Blauwer, Painted Scenes 87, 2019. Unique Photo Collage, 4.3 x 5.7 inches (GCP37928). Courtesy of the artist and ROSEGALLERY.
Written by Jania Marissa
Photo Edited by Lyz Rider
ROSEGALLERY recently debuted their exhibition titled “Fragmented Lucidity”, in which the name alone draws one in to see what the collection will explore. Fragmented Lucidity holds a literal and figurative meaning in the context of the show’s identity.
Fragmented: from pieces, broken.
Lucidity: intellectual coherence of expression, clarity.
The name of this exhibition is a juxtaposition of great curiosity, how can broken pieces emulate lucidity?
The medium used is of photography not in its organic form but rather an assemblage of collages that work as one piece. Photo manipulation can work in various ways and allows great diversity in post photography. After it has gone through the process of recontextualizing, rearranging and dismantling, the artist then births a new creation, a new photograph.
© Ken Graves, Blind, 2005. Signed on print in pencil. Unique mixed media collage, 4.6 x 3.75 inches (GCP26251). Courtesy of the artist and ROSEGALLERY.
The artists who are within the show share a similar process and yet produce differing images, tones and subject matter. Katrien De Blauwer, Ken Graves and Kensuke Koike all explore photography in the form of transformation of photography. Taking more than one image and reimagining it for a new digestion. The source material being newspapers, magazines, vintage ads and photographs from the past. All of these artists utilize differing aesthetics, but the common thread of these works is the nuance in altering the image from familiar, to the unfamiliar. By removing the original context and giving it a new one through different means, there is now new life to the image and possibly more than one understanding of it. There is the layer of reference, being the newspaper cutout, or the photographer's subject which remains, but the new layer is in the reframing of this photograph. Why leave one element and not another? Every decision matters and is intentional, which creates the beauty in the photographic configuration.
© Katrien De Blauwer, Faces 5 , 2022. Unique Photo Collage, 5.5 x 7.75 inches (GCP37916). Courtesy of the artist and ROSEGALLERY.
Katrien De Blauwer has an intimacy within her work in this exhibition, there is a femininity that is being explored, through comparison to objects, colors and imagery that evoke an emotional response. “Face 5” for example, has a half faceless female bust under a clipping of the moon, with a vivid baby pink background to the image. This mixes the metaphors of femininity, of the Moon, the female body, the emotion of the night with the identity of woman all in one image, resulting in a powerful and evocative piece.
© Ken Graves, She was living an ordinary life, 1984. Signed on print in pencil. Unique mixed media collage, 3.5 x 6 inches (GCP26321). Courtesy of the artist and ROSEGALLERY.
Ken Graves employs a more satirical and commentary-like tone in his work. He uses original images which have commonly known messaging and inserts a different undertone to be revealed by the audience. This gives a new experience to the connotation of the piece and adds to the complexity of how society views the messaging in images that we have seen our whole lives through ads, magazines and media. By rearranging details, the picture becomes clearer than before, or perhaps a different kind of lens to view the world from.
© Kensuke Koike, Little By Little, 2023. Switched Vintage Photo, 4 x 6 inches (GCP37970). Courtesy of the artist and ROSEGALLERY.
Kensuke Koike's photographs provide viewers the ability to dig deeper, to question more and to be immersed into the true essence of the image at hand. Koike’s process of making these images involves risk, due to the delicate balance of what element is being altered and why. His photographs influence the viewer to interact with the feelings of the images and what those said feelings reflect in you.
The lucid expression of narrative by these artists, using fragments symbolically, reflects the paradox of reality. We construct our own story, our own lens to see the world from, through fragments.
