My love of collage began back in 1998 in Leeds University bookshop while I was leaning against the shelves, waiting for someone to sort their life out. On those bookshelves I found Grete Stern's photomontages and I fell in love with the super-weird, women-focused worlds. Their weirdness, and their focus on women, was explained by the fact that were based on real women's dreams.
A lot of time passed and I eventually forgot about Grete and her beautiful dreamworlds but then I read about Beth Hoeckel in Booooooom and I was back in the game. Hoeckel conjures up her own magical worlds that take me back to recurring childhood dreams and memories I have never been able to shake. I fell in love.
I've not thought too deeply about why I love collage so much and I'm sure overthinking will kill that love. I suppose it's the combination of reality and the unreal - it's the otherworldliness.
Now my walls are packed with Beth Hoeckel, Eugenia Loli, Morgan Hislop and Sammy Slabbinck prints and their otherworldly weirdness fills me with joy.