“Connecting unexpected people, places, objects, and ideas provides a huge boost to your imagination. You can practice this skill by using provocative metaphors, interacting with those outside your normal circles, building on existing ideas, and finding inspiration in unlikely places.”
— Tina Seelig
As the international cross-pollination of collage artists advances into the new year, facebook.com continues to be a significant crossroads for active collaborators. The BINGO-card project of Terry Flowers is pushing the boundaries of imagination, and Kevin Brandtner’s enormous margarine-card initiative shows no sign of winding down. The Vienna-based artist came into the possession of about 1,000 small vintage images ideally suited to visual modification. They date from the 1950s and were clearly intended as promotional collectibles (“originally produced for advertising purposes by the margarine company ‘Sannella,’ picturing the adventures of various German men,” according to Brandtner). Under his facebook screen name, Geronimo Finn, he invited collage artists from around the world to accept three cards of his choosing and to collaborate with him by 1) providing a finish to one of his starts, 2) offering one start for him to finish, and 3) completing one solo collage. A book documenting all or many of the resulting artworks is an open possibility, but it is difficult for anyone to predict how long the project will last before “Geronimo” pulls the ripcord.
For the “finish,” I embedded an aesthetically integrated, but out-of-context, factory town-scape as subtle support for Kevin’s armed observer. By contrast, my “start” is a hyper-macabre parody of aboriginal stereotypes, and I look forward to his response. For the assigned solo treatment, I could not resist perpetuating the microscopic-creature-as-monster cliché.
Untitled (Zebraville)
a collage collaboration by J A Dixon and K Brandtner
(card selection and start by Brandtner, finish by Dixon)
Sammelwerk Afrika, Bild 33: Zebras und Gnus her Tränke
13.6 x 9.7 centimeters
Untitled (Baby Head Stew)
a collage collaboration by J A Dixon and K Brandtner
(card selection by Brandtner, start by J A Dixon, finish to come)
Sammelwerk Australien, Bild 79: Erdo fen der Maoris
13.7 x 9.8 centimeters
Untitled (Mighty Mite)
a collage collaboration by J A Dixon and K Brandtner
(card selection by Brandtner, solo completion by Dixon)
Sammelwerk Australien, Bild 52: Auf dem Barriereriff
9.8 x 13.7 centimeters
