From the Biblioteque Nationale
collage, foam core
6 3/4 x 4 1/4 in.
2009
Unlike earlier collages such as Frieze, where I painstakingly tore small bits of paper by hand and then carefully arranged them, in this series the tip of a belt sander is used, like a high-speed stylus, to grind down the surfaces. The reverse side of the image is worked on so that, even without using a pen or pencil, the frenetic marks are to be understood as drawings. They trace voided references, the gaps recording the history of hundreds of physical movements, like an insect eating the cellulose of a leaf but not the veins. The fluid gestures are both agitated and precise; speed is the operative technique, stressing both image and its backing paper to its limits. Through the process of elimination the irregular crevices leave the residual layers of reproductions and underlying fragmented images peaking through, forming amorphous portraits.