COLLAGE: Re-Membering Through Paper & Scissors
“Collage allows the opening up of conscious, which is very direct…it's also a way of looking at what you are consuming all the time” – John Stezaker
Do you remember the first time you held a pair of scissors in your hand? Learning to cut paper is up there with learning to tie your shoes — skills taught at an early age, used throughout our lifetimes and not easily forgotten. With a simple up and motion of thumb to index finger while the hand methodically careens around curves or through straight lines cut into paper new objects are formed. Scissors are believed to have originated with the ancient Egyptians some 1500 BCE. While the invention of modern day scissors are credited to Robert Hinchliffe who mass produced them in 1706. The earliest known paper has been traced back to China around 200 BCE. This is also the period when the first collages are believed to have been created although Pablo Picasso first made them popular in the early 20th century.
Collage is an act of making where cut out paper of different colors, shapes, and sizes in glued to a surface. Collage making can happen just about anywhere as long as you have a trusty (not rusty) paper of scissors, scraps of any kind of paper (how about that pile of receipts?).
Collage is a freeing form of expression, filled with endless creative possibilities and where imperfections are welcomed.
As part of the KTC’s Kranky Making movement, collage making will be a regularly scheduled event that you can participate in both at in person events and weekly online via our Kranky Thumb YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@KrankyThumbCollective
Sources:
• https://paper.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/History%20of%20Papermaking%20Around%20the%20World.pdf