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Cut Up and Newly Pasted
By admin
September 26, 2006 · 6 Comments
“Cut&Paste” is an exhibit about collage and reinvention. Images, both still and video, are taken out of their context and manipulated into something new: a reflection of the artists’ own imagination. Five artists, Anita Allyn, Ellie Brown, Kent Latimer, Eric Lendl, and Caroline Shields participated in the exhibit at Falling Cow Gallery.
Ellie Brown’s Found Book Collages
Ellie Brown – “Not Made For Quitting”
Many of the books reminded me of what my Aunt gave me to read when I was younger – Nancy Drew, the Boxcar children, Sweet Valley High. They had playful slogans like, “Love CAN Say No” or “‘She’s my wife,’ he thought, “but she doesn’t want me.” Yet there was a frightening complicity of gender roles in the images chosen; representations of women fawning over men, tempting them, or sometimes even running away from them. The bright colors and shapes were catchy, perhaps distracting the viewer at first from recognizing the message that each book offers – which made the art humorous, but perhaps sardonically so. The fact is, there were a LOT of the books; in bulk, the effect was overwhelming. Love, through Brown’s books, seems like a scary carnival ride – fun only for the first couple of minutes. 
Caroline Shields – “Later Than You Think”
Shields – “St. Joli – Protector of the Innocents”
Her works look like little shrines to a female deity from the 80′s – cute, religious, and fun. If they were homages to a person I might think them a bit morbid, but they feature Hello Kitty, Barbies, little dolls, birds, and cute pictures of Virgin Mary’s and Jesus Christ’s (if the latter can be “cute”). I think of what Joseph Cornell’s grandaughter might have made alongside him in his studio, and her work comes to mind. And if you found her reference to The Specials song in the first image of hers above, kudos to you.
Eric Lendl, “A Day at the Beach”
And to represent the boys is Eric Lendl. His work has a retro feel to it that reminded me of 1950′s TV, or advertisements for toy rifles. The individual images joined has an especially childlike feel at first glance, until one questions why the scary dinosaurs are in the same collage with kids in a toybox. There are more adult themes behind the collages: ideas about government, religion, science, war, and Lendl explores how these varying themes are represented in and affecting today’s society.
Cut&Paste featured many childlike images, which may be inspired by the scissors and tape memories of arts and crafts in elementary school. These images at first seemed old-fashioned, but when joined together they create a new overlook to today’s reality. Perhaps the overall statement is that not much of what we find funny about the past has changed in the modern world, especially in regards to the approach to gender roles, love and play. More pictures, including Kent Latimer’s “The Way I was Raised” and a still from Anita Allyn’s “Imaginary Lines” (which was previously shown at a Vox Populi exhibit), are on my flickr site.
“Cut&Paste” is at Falling Cow Gallery, 732 South 4th Street. Hours are 11:00-6:00, Wednesday through Saturday. Hurry because this exhibit closes the 30th!
-Caitlin is: Artblog Intern
Tags: anita allyn, caitlin, caroline shields, ellie brown, eric lendl, kent latimer
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Lendl’s stuff looks great…looks like he owes a lot to Neo Rauch, though; but less freaky/post-apocalyptic.
For the record, none of the men were angry. The only vaguely negative response I receieved was from an old boyfriend who said ” I don’t care to read this book”. The men I do get in touch with are almost always flattered about their books and ask questions about it.
Thank you also for commenting on the amount of work in the show. I’ll pretend you were in awe about how hard I worked to produce all of the artwork exhibited.
Best,
Ellie Brown
In response to Tim: Only the retro source material fends off the post-apocalyptic label. It’s like the full cast of the Ten Commandments in each image as the Red Sea threatens to cover everyone over. I’d say it’s the apocalypse itself.
The compositions were pretty amazing, and I got a sort of Busby Berkeley vibe in groups of swimmers and other chorus lines of humanity.
In response to Ellie:
I’m not speaking for Caitlin here, only for myself. Your books invariably intrigue me for their blend of feisty feminism and dirtiness. They get at these themes often in surprising ways; For the most part, I find them more interesting than the photoshopped collages, where layers of book source material get flattened out. Sometimes the depth of meaning also gets flattened.
The prints are direct scans from the books. There is not a print in the show that does not represent a book on the shelf nor are any of them done with photoshop.
Thanks you for your comments and I’m glad you got to see the show.
-Ellie
Oh Ellie Brown, I’m not trying to say that the amount of work isn’t awesome. I thought that the exhibit was great, and I’m sorry if that didn’t come across immediately in the piece. If anything, the amount of work worked well to convey the sense that love can be overwhelming in general, (not that you haven’t worked hard to produce it) – I felt very connected to each piece emotionally, and that I felt overwhelmed by the books, which at times portrayed what I thought to be an inequality in the relationship, is a great testimony to this fact.
Thanks!
Caitlin