For the launch of our assault on the world of underwear, or sous-vêtements as we pretentiously like to call it (French for underwear in case you’re wondering), we’ve gone all collage on you, equally pretentious you’d be forgiven for thinking. Well, yeah but we thought it was our best chance of creating some interesting imagery and we’re pretty pleased with the results… we hope you like them too, if not at least one of us is happy.
To realise our vision we turned to London based graphic artist Jonathon Cooke whose work you’ve most likely encountered over the years, chances are you’re familiar with his iconic sleeve artwork for Leftfield’s seminal album Leftism.
An added bonus to messing around with collage is the opportunity for us to speak with great authority about something we knew very little about, until that is we did a bit of reading on the subject… get a load of this -
Collage as an artform has undergone a transformative journey through the lens of popular culture, becoming a powerful vehicle for social commentary and cultural critique… here are some proponents we recommend you acquaint yourself with:
Flying the flag for pop art and right up there is Warhol of course with his revolutionary approach to art and celebrity, propelling collage into the mainstream consciousness. His Marilyn Monroe and Campbell's Soup series epitomised the blurring of the lines between high and low art.
Fast forward to today with artists like Oliver Payne and his Safecrackers thing reshaping the landscape combining elements of digital collage, video game aesthetics and a whole load of other stuff. We tried to write a critique of Oliver’s work but it sounded like a regional newspaper story about a Banksy appearing on the side of a pet shop so we gave up… but take our word for it and check him out, it’s good stuff.
Hannah Höch’s interesting, a pioneer of the Dada movement who confronted issues of gender and identity in her work paving the way for future generations of feminist artists.
And representing the Surrealists is Man Ray, pushing the boundaries of collage through his innovative techniques and unconventional materials.
Nancy Spero deserves a mention - her politically charged collages use the medium as a tool for activism and social change… whereas we’re using it to sell underwear; we should probably have a think about this.
John Stezaker’s work is really nice, juxtaposing photography and film stills in a surreal way, you can get a bit weirded out if you look at it for too long but don’t let this put you off.
Jesse Treece’s equally surreal compositions and visual puns are probably what we drew most directly from when thinking about the direction for our collages, this with a bit of Warhol and Oliver Payne thrown in… as a respectful homage.
Then to round things off is Annegret Soltau, wouldn’t recommend her work if you’re in the middle of a terrible come down but definitely worth appreciating when you’re feeling tip top.
So there you have it, a whirlwind summary of collage in an easily digestible nutshell, we hope you’ve found it informative.