Text by Alex Mendi

Identity is not a linear narrative, and simplicity does not define consciousness. Our sentience is fragmented and multifaceted, and as a storytelling species, we crave outlets to give form to our existential angst. Cave paintings, ritualistic chants and monolithic structures morphed endlessly. From ancient art and medieval paintings to Dada and Surrealism. Pop art, appropriation, and modernism became ways to navigate our modern world. As currents of thought shifted further, when did art begin to blur distinctions of space and time? When did collage emerge as part of the conversation?

Collage is a medium that evolved slowly and was discovered rather than invented. From the French coller, collage literally means to glue or to stick. Layering visual, graphic, and tactile elements, collage becomes the process and the outcome of connecting ideas both obvious and elusive. With readily available materials ranging from magazine cutouts to newspaper advertisements and found objects, collageʼs barriers to entry were low. Thus, it became the medium of both the amateur and the master. Painters, photographers, poets and sculptors used collage to encrypt and unpack narratives.

Distinctions between collage, photomontage, and assemblage are blurry, as they all share a Frankensteinian logic of assembly. Collage and photomontage are both 2D dissections of imagery, while assemblage, on the other hand, breaks the 2D boundary into a three-dimensional world, still mimicking the fragmented nature of collage.

Finding a sense of identity through the never-ending chaos of our surroundings is a complex undertaking. Through its multiplicity of meanings, perspectives, and histories, collage was always appealing for those with layered identities. Photomontages can be found as early as the Victorian era, but they gained popularity in the 20th century. Through their collages, Dada artists Kurt Schwitters, Raoul Hausmann, and John Hearfield; and Surrealists Dora Maar, Man Ray, and Eileen Agar, to name a few, were pioneers in the active deconstruction of identity. Subverting logic they arrived at a critique that went beyond their individuality and instead probed the political and social systems that dominated the time.

For post-and-anti-war artists Hannelore Baron and Robert Rauschenberg, it became a channel for their trauma and rage. For feminists across generations, like Martha Rosler, Barbara Kruger, Hannah Höch, Claude Cahun, Linder Sterling and Nancy Spero, it was a direct response to the patriarchal and male-centered consumerist society that thrives when denigrating women. Romare Bearden used collage as an outlet to comprehend his fragmented sense of belonging through a racial and cultural lens, and today, artists like Lorna Simpson, Wangechi Mutu and Deborah Roberts echo those threads.

The perpetual flux of digital abundance characteristic of the present-day landscape can be paralyzing. Artists like Sara Cwynar, Lucas Blalock and Jon Rafman explore the intersections of identity and the saturation of media. Through an amalgamation of mediums like photography, video, and animation they create collages that go beyond a screen and into real-world immersive experiences. Keen on probing the logic of image saturation and the absurdity of the digital sphere, these artists continue to question the structures that support what we interpret as reality.

As the medium continues to morph and expand, a few things remain unchanged. Collage has been and will continue to be a medium that subverts the foundations of our perceived reality, and through its disjointed nature, itʼs become a portal into the tangled webs of identity. In this issue, artists from all across the globe will each show us a window into their own constructed universes. For Agnes Eperjesy, Mario Zoots and Harriet Moutsopoulosʼ worlds, the surreal and unexpected clash and reconfigure every frame. For others, like Thato Toeba, Prapat Jiwarangsan and Giana de Dier, history is the starting point for reconstructing an old memory and cementing a new one. For Rodrigo Moreira and Bonnita Postma, pleasure becomes unapologetic, and sex appeal almost an inevitable result from confrontation. Each in their unique way, they come together through their deep curiosity for what already exists, and sensibility for what could be.