Rediscovering the magic of collage

It all started with an invitation to Gingerhill, the beautiful rest house of Cesar and Fe Rodriguez in Matabungkay, Batangas. Since it was to be a long three-hour trip from Manila, Malang, Fe’s uncle, suggested we start at first light in caravan-fashion. The drive was indeed long and tiring, but all signs of fatigue vanished when our congenial hosts, Burger Machine’s Ces and Fe, welcomed us to their home-away-from home.

Gingerhill is a uniquely charming and enticing place. As we toured the house, we noticed touches of culture and elegant taste everywhere – paintings on the walls, art books and periodicals atop coffee tables as well as varied ethnic artifacts. All rooms opened outwards and became part of the idyllic gardens and wide-open space. "Ah," we sighed, "walang ganito sa Maynila!"

With the sun well above our heads, we scampered off in different directions, scouting for shady spots to either sketch or catnap. But luck was not with us. Out of nowhere we heard a shout, "Hoy! Mag-meeting muna tayo!"

It was Malang, holding a coffee mug and calling the board members for a brain storming sessions. We responded – Buds Convocar, the new CEO and Saturday Group president, Cris Cruz, Magoo Valencia, Migs Villanueva, Lydia Velasco and myself.

We had two main objectives in our minds: First, to design a program of activities for 2004, and second, to promote awareness and participation for the visual arts especially for the young ones and not-so-young, regardless of social or economic class.

Suggestions for developing and enriching our activities were made, ranging from pen-and-ink techniques to portraiture and figure drawing, from collage to abstract painting. After some discussions, frowns and raised eyebrows, the board finally agreed that rediscovering collage would be the ideal project for this year’s first experimental or exploratory activity. It would certainly appeal to those constrained by the high cost of art materials. It also would concur with Judy Araneta Roxas’ dream of making Cubao another center for the arts.

To allay our doubts, Malang added, "Don’t belittle collage as a legitimate art medium. It has been around in the art world for over three centuries!"

Collage was originally a French word derived from the word coller, meaning to paste. It first emerged as a folk art in Europe and later in America and Asia. With the invention of the printing press, newspapers and periodicals become available. As early as the 16th century, Dutch and Flemish artists produced still-life paintings using torn paper, lottery tickets and cards. Their artwork was so real that viewers were often tempted to touch them. Throughout the 1800s, artists Rafael Peale, William Harnett and John Peto continued to paint beautiful collages.

In America, vestiges of collages as a folk art appeared in the 19th century. Highly popular were the decorative valentines, the silhouettes and paper cuts. Screens, vases and bowls with paste-on elements were always sought out as mementos and souvenirs. These were the forerunners of our present day decals. Not to be outdone, women made attractive quilts using bits of cloth or materials (fabric collage). Their needlework became attractions to social events especially in country fair competitions.

However, it was only in the early 1900s that collage became a form of serious artistic expression. This was mainly due to the pioneering work of cubists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Their two-dimensional work used newspaper clippings, tobacco wrappers, colored papers, wallpapers and printed papers with trompe l’oeil patterns resembling wood grains and chair caning. Both artists often embellished their collages with painted details or charcoal drawings.

After the pioneering work of Picasso and Braque, other cubists adopted collage and its potentials as an art medium. In Italy, home of the Ferrari, futurists used collage to convey the ideals of the machine age – mechanization, dynamism and speed. Russian constructivists employed collage in the posters that heralded the Russian Revolution. Dadaists and surrealists of the 1920s incorporated found objects to convey new meanings to their artworks. However, Marcel Duchamp, the most known Dadaist, shocked viewers when he fashioned a urinal in his assemblage and entitled it "Fountain." Two other well-known Dadaists, Karl Schwitter and Max Ernst, used collage extensively. Schwitter integrated memorabilia from his personal life into his collage – letters, tickets, newspapers, playbills, etc. On the other hand, Ernst, deeply interested in psychiatry, used the principle of automatism – suspending the conscious mind’s control in order to release subconscious images. Ernst incorporated the subtle image in his collage. Surrealist Joseph Cornell’s hallmark work centered around a printed image of a human body with the head of a bird. In the Philippines, some artists who have employed collage as an art medium are Bencab, Jose Joya, Arturo Luz, Chabet and Imelda Cajipe-Endaya, to name a few.

Contemporary collages, montages and assemblages embrace almost every substance known to modern man; paper of all kinds, cardboard, wood, glass, linoleum, neon, burlap, leather, bone, plaster; natural materials like leaves, barks of trees, butterfly wings; synthetic fabrics and even bread, cookies and macaroni. The list is long and limitless. Actually, collage is left to the creativity of the artist. In jest, one Saturday Group member remarked that if all 80 million Filipinos each make a collage, we would solve the country’s and MMDA Bayani Fernando’s garbage problem.

Ongoing is an exhibit featuring 40 collages at the Saturday Group Gallery, at the second floor Ali Mall Cubao. Included in the show are Ambassador Rafael Gonzales’ simple but sentimental tribute to his late wife, Ambassador Fely Benzon-Gonzales, titled "In Memoriam," Boy Valino’s juxtaposed collage of "Faces," Anna Marcelo’s "Red Mood" using crumbled papel de japon and twisted paper twine, caricaturist Roel Obemio’s whimsical "Sabungero" and Sheilo Tiangco’s floral spray of fuchsia and purple handmade rice paper. This exhibit hopes to encourage those who may want to discover the joy of collage as an art medium. The creative possibilities are infinite, challenging and great fun. All one needs is paper, paste and… ala eh… lots of fertile imagination!