Category: collages

Between collages and paper creations, the result of residencies and experiments, Do Insects Play? is a poetic exploration of materials that blends visual art and writing.

The Coup de Crayon collection offers the artists in the fields of painting, drawing or collage a “carte blanche” to imagine a series as a book. “Do Insects Play” is the third volume of the collection.

‘Do Insects Play?’ is an insight into French artist Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck’s playful and mindful practice, one that is frequently informed by the environment in which she finds herself. The artworks contained in this book are a curated selection of soft and vibrant collages from the ongoing series Cocooning  – composed of various found papers, paintings and textiles, along pieces from To End is to Start, a new body of works created out of repurposed cotton fibres and water. The pieces have all been produced during a 2018 – 19 residency in South India where Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck deepened her knowledge and practice of hand papermaking. A short story by the artist is presented alongside the artworks, appearing as a gentle melody dancing throughout the pages.

Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck (b.1990, Strasbourg, France) is a painter and interdisciplinary artist working across London (UK) and rural Alsace (France). Her practice composed of painting, drawing, installation, sculpture, film, photography and writing often conceals ecological messages, rendered in soft and delicate methods. In several of the artist’s projects interaction with the environment and others plays a central role. Solo exhibitions include Épistolaire Imaginaire – Merci at Galerie Jean-Francois Kaiser, and Take Care – きをつけてat Nidi Gallery. In 2014, Johanna founded the positive and collaborative cultural project Poetic Pastel. In 2018, the artist cofounded the publication series Journal du Thé – Contemporary Tea Culture.

Using traditional techniques like embroidery, cutting, and collage, Julie Cockburn enhances abandoned photos she collects, giving them a second life and adding a layer of mystery to their forgotten past.

“Stickybeak” is Julie Cockburn’s first comprehensive monograph.
The book coincides with Cockburn’s solo show “Telling it slant” at Flowers Gallery in London, UK (12 September-2 November 2019)

We are all stickybeaks to some extent. Many of my fictional heroes and heroines spend their time sleuthing or, at the very least, nosing around in other people’s business; Miss Marple, Lieutenant Columbo, Margo Leadbetter. There are even tales of espionage in my not so distant family history. Anyone with a social media account engages in a bit of stickybeakery – it’s human nature to be inquisitive.

The works in this book were made over a period of twelve years, some one-off experiments, others part of ongoing series that I add to over time. Each piece began with the search for the perfect image, setting some vaguely rigorous parameters for myself. I selected used postcards, old photographs, foxed bookplates and my own childhood drawings. And each of these foundlings had a different history, an unknown or forgotten story to tell. By submitting to my interventions, they transformed from silent, redundant, orphans into material objects with a regenerated heartbeat.

I see this book as a continuation of that process. The publishers rooted through the hundreds of images in my archive in the same way I sift through pages of online marketplaces or the jumbled tables at car boot fairs. My industrious hand embroidery and intricate collages are given a light touch here, the sequence of the images alluding to a gentle, humorous narrative. We will all read it differently, pausing on those pieces that speak the loudest to us, in our own preferred language. But broadly, this whittled selection, our chosen game of consequences, investigates how we see ourselves and each other, and the multi-layered ambiguity of life.

Julie Cockburn

Sobras is Geraldo de Barros’ most intimate series: he works from his family archives, cutting and gluing them into a black-and-white world.

Geraldo de Barros (1923-98) is one of the major figures of the Brazilian artistic scene during the second half of the 20th century. He was an inventive and experimental artist with a diverse practice that included painting, photography and design, as well as being one of the founding members of concrete art in São Paulo.

Following a series of strokes, de Barros returned to photography at the end of the 90s. Revisiting his archive with the help of an assistant, he created cuts and collages from old family photographs – making his last and most personal series: « Sobras » (Remains).

The book « Sobras » is the first international publication devoted to this work, and sits somewhere between a historical tribute and artist book. Vanessa Barbara, a young Brazilian writer, compliments de Barros’ last photographs with a quirky short story inspired by his striking world, in which pitch blacks contrast with the dazzling white snow of his winter memories.

Geraldo de Barros (1923-98) is one of the major figures of the Brazilian artistic scene during the second half of the 20th century. He was an inventive and experimental artist with a diverse practice that included painting, photography and design, as well as being one of the founding members of concrete art in São Paulo.

Following a series of strokes, de Barros returned to photography at the end of the 90s. Revisiting his archive with the help of an assistant, he created cuts and collages from old family photographs – making his last and most personal series: « Sobras » (Remains).

The book « Sobras » is the first international publication devoted to this work, and sits somewhere between a historical tribute and artist book. Vanessa Barbara, a young Brazilian writer, compliments de Barros’ last photographs with a quirky short story inspired by his striking world, in which pitch blacks contrast with the dazzling white snow of his winter memories.