TRANSFORM YOURSELF INTO A HYBRID CREATURE AND REVEAL THE FANTASY SIDE TO YOUR VEY OWN SELF
PUZZLING PICTORIAL WORLDS
COLLAGE TECHNIQUE
In association with the exhibition FANTASTIC WOMEN. One popular technique used by the Surrealists was collage. Different materials such as scraps of paper, pieces of wallpaper or even bits cut out from photographs were reworked and assembled to create a new, surprising pictorial composition.
THE ARTISTS OFTEN COMBINED SUBJECTS THAT SEEM NOT TO FIT TOGETHER AND THUS PRESENT PUZZLES TO THE OBSERVER
In Jane Graverol’s collage “The Prosperity of Vice”, a bird of prey lifts a female figure into the air. Spiky leaves and flowers fill the silhouette of her upper body. The bird, too, appears strange: Where there should be natural bird feathers, we see the machinery of war such as tanks and gun barrels. The combination of pictorial elements that seem not to belong together or are even contradictory is vexing for the observer, as it plays with the laws of nature and apparently overrides them. Here, Graverol combined different materials she had found, including advertisements and prints from magazines, and then painted the background of the picture.
WHAT YOU NEED: A SHEET OF WHITE PAPER, A PHOTO OF YOURSELF, BLACK CRAYONS OR FELT-TIP PENS, OLD MAGAZINES, SCISSORS AND GLUE
INSTRUCTIONS
Ask your parents or your brother/sister to take a full-body photo of you and print it out. Then use the collage technique to transform yourself into a hybrid creature:
Cut up your photo and reassemble it on a sheet of paper together with bits cut out from old magazines. You might, for example, incorporate a globe as a belly or a branch as an arm. Add to your collage by drawing – here you might choose to link up cut-out sections with each other and thus make the image whole. For this, you can use black crayons or felt-tip pens of different thicknesses. Are you happy with the result? Then glue the cut-out elements onto the paper – and your fantastical self-portrait is complete!
TIPS
- Ask your mom and dad in advance which materials you can use for your collage: These might include old magazines, but also postcards and posters you no longer need.
- Use a bigger sheet of paper (for example an A3 sheet) to create your collage – this way, you’ll have more space and can add even more details.
- Which animals and plants do you like the most? What hobbies do you have and how can you depict them? The answers to these questions will help you to find subjects for your fantastical self-portrait.
- Design the background using watercolor paints. Let yourself be inspired by the works in our image gallery.
