Collage is like the word-play that I use and love so much. It is a way to make light of, shine light on and rearrange the so-called reality that is laid upon me every day by forces beyond my control. It keeps me sane and smart and free.
Just like the words, I did not invent the images I use. They are derivative, as is nearly every single thing and thought out there. Still, new words and images often appear and become the bridge between the collective reality and my (or your) personal reality. When an object or an idea is put in my path I consider it a gift. I realize in the moment that I am in the right place at the right time. The physical, mental, and spiritual forces convene to overtake the sum of their parts. I call that luck. Some call it being blessed.
The ‘Royal Show of Hands’ series came about by a simple (and complex) string of “in the right place at the right time” moments. Gifts. Over a decade ago I bought a small stack of Formatt (trademark Graphics Products Corporation) adhesive sheets from the bargain bin of an LA art supply store. Even then they were strange relics of the pre-computer days of graphics and architectural layouts. I was enthralled by their ready-made nature and by the paradoxical fact that they were bland generic clip-art used by million dollar art departments to make “unique” product mock-ups, renderings and campaigns. They are the visual language of capitalism simplified and perfected to better create and sell products that sell better. Templates of recognizable and palatable formats. Watered down reality.
Fast-forward and rewind to three months ago. Corona Virus hit Italy hard and that happened to be where I was. Lucky huh? Or blessed. On a trip to empty the trash (one of the only legal reasons to leave the house) I found a folder of modern reproduction prints of antique engravings of Florence. Worthless but wonderful scenes.
While forced to stay home, all past and possible ideas for filling the time came to the surface. Play music, listen to music, write a book, read a book, call a friend, eat more, sleep more, stare at the wall, cry, etc. That’s when a deck of Italian playing-cards appeared. I hate playing card-games but I opened the deck because I love playing-card imagery. Like the American flag, you don't have to believe in it but as a composition it is strong. I had never seen face-cards with the characters in full standing positions.
American cards typically show the figures’ bust and a mirror image so that the card looks the same from both ends. The less stylized Italian cards, in effect, are more figurative and bring the notion of royalty more clearly into the picture. Almost immediately I made the connection between Corona and crowns. The ball was rolling. I started cutting the figures out from the cards before I knew what I would do with them, but before I finished cutting them out I knew that they belonged to the images of Florence that I found in the trash.
In a clandestine trip to my studio, to collect all of the supplies I might need for the forthcoming months of lockdown, I grabbed the stack of Formatt sheets that I had been holding on to for so long and made a small selection of the ones that seemed most interesting. I picked a few alphabet sheets of fonts, a collection of arrows, and a sheet with many sizes of hands holding different numbers of fingers up. Random and perfect. Once I saw the engravings, the royal figures, and the clip-art sheets together on the same table at home, the collages were basically finished ideas that I merely had to put together.
Only half-way into putting them together did I realize that the hands looked like gloves and pointing fingers. The arrows became the paths of the contagion, the broadcasting of good and bad information, and the willy-nilly direction of all of our perceptions and feelings in the midst of crisis.
What else? Well, obviously the face-cards are wealthy, powerful and white. Over-sized full color figures standing above the gloved minuscule grey-scale masses. Positions of privilege yesterday, today and tomorrow, through pandemics, protests, and the monotonous days when everything seems “just fine”. -CWS June 1st 2020