One of the Overture Center's winter galleries this year began this time last year as a collaboration between UW-Madison grads Amy Newell and Jason Ruhl. Together, the pair began cutting and pasting collected images on squares of paper which, after undergoing constant transformations, resulted in a curious, striking and cohesive collection.
That collection, aptly titled Scavengers: Cut and Paste,"" features a year's worth of the duo's collages, each with a unique composition and combination of images. The collection features diverse abstractions, and not one of the pieces resembles familiar conventions such as landscapes, figures or still lifes, though many incorporate these elements.
Each piece in the collection is titled ""Everything But The Kitchen Sink,"" and the title is, in many cases, quite literal. Newell and Ruhl pull images that appear to be torn from anatomy texts, geometric patterns, etchings of people and printed representations of iconic figures, deftly weaving them into compositions. To create a sense of unity, each piece is identically sized and shaped out of white paper, matted with white and placed in a simple metal frame. Newell and Ruhl suggest that they want the viewer's entire focus on the collage by placing each in the exact same context.
Sets are grouped by common themes but result in diverse, composite images, taking on new meaning with each element.
These modifications can result in beautiful, puzzling or even funny pieces. One image features an alligator's head - mouth wide-open - with a hand-drawn body and a disfigured baby positioned uncomfortably close to the Frankenstein beast's jaws.
In another piece (see below), almost every individual image is unrecognizable except for a hand reaching its finger down a throat over an abstract splash of red.
Newell and Ruhl leave interpretations open-ended and viewers can be assured the collection will leave them with more questions than answers.
