Torn Together — Couch in the Desert

Torn Together, Las Vegas Collage Collective at Available Space Art Projects

By Rose Miller

Armed with scissors and glue, the Las Vegas Collage Collective has created a space that captures the messy essence of collage in their debut group show, Torn Together. Eight participating artists join together to cut, break, and tear open a place for themselves in the Las Vegas art scene in a showcase of paper and sculpture at the Available Space Art Projects gallery. As I continue to explore collage in my own work, I find spaces like the one that the collective creates increasingly important in blurring the lines between craft and art and reimagining the boundaries of the medium. The collective’s belief that “the fundamental aspect integral to the process of creating collages lies in the act of bringing things together” is a tangible line running through the exhibited artwork. Accompanied by a sound performance on Saturday, March 24th, the show was a reminder of what’s at the heart of the craft.

Carina Arriaga pieces together cutouts of skin, hair, and fabric to create figures that are familiar despite their lack of identifying facial features. Arriaga strips the identity from popular culture characters—Prince and Pee-Wee Herman.The artist has left out the mouths, eyes, and noses, using only magazine cutouts of skin and jarringly detailed ears to shape the faces. We recognize them as icons, not as individuals. They are given no mouth with which to speak, to defend, to explain. With no hints as to their expression, we are able to project whatever emotion we wish to upon them.

Treasure Hunt by JK Russ depicts a sky that’s constructed with flat planes of orange and purple paper, the torn edges creating texture and patterns reminiscent of stained glass. Its interlocking sections frame the scene of two women against a curving pillar of stone surrounded by a landscape of red rock and glittering coins. One of the women reaches out towards a falling diamond, smiling, but seemingly blinded by the crown of gems sitting atop her head. Russ gives us a depiction of wealth: the desire and pursuit of it, and its ability to render one ignorant.

The work by Laura Meyer is a classic collage through and through—borrowed images pasted onto paper in a way that changes the context of them and, in turn, how I understand the pieces. In Satisfy Your Soul, a couple stares up at a pair of bright orange legs pasted into a redwood forest, as tall as the trees themselves. Through scale and color, Meyer creates a sort of fantasy world where the boundaries of the appropriated images have been expanded. Also by Meyer, the Partswork trio features figures pasted into surreal environments. The background of Partswork 2 is a multi-colored image cut and rearranged to make a space that reads like multiple reflections in a series of mirrors. In the center of the composition, a monochromatic nude woman sips tea. Unlike the scene around her, the artist has left the woman as a whole, easily read body. She is both embedded in and removed from the chaos of the background, a confusing relationship that leads me to imagine what might change if I could shift the angle of my vision.

Beyond the cut-and-paste paper collages, Jim White brings some three-dimensional work to the show. The creature in Green Apples II, which used to be a horse, now exists with its head twisted backwards and doll arms replacing its hoofs. The coating of white paint and the wings laid beside it give it the tragedy of a pegasus that has lost its ability to fly. It doesn’t even stand upright, and I wonder if it would be painful to try and walk on its ineffectual fingers.

A major goal of the collective is to “highlight what a versatile medium collage can be.” As part of the show, the collective hosted a special sound-collage event, with performances by artists John McVay, Chad Martinez, and Jeffery Bennington Grindley.

The gallery was filled with the hum of layered noise. Music isn’t an accurate word to describe the sound, although there were moments where the lyrics of a song would rise and become fleetingly recognizable. The performance was a perfect partner to the work on the walls; chaotic and always changing, the music encompassed the gathered audience as much as the art did. McVay’s contribution of scissors hooked up to an amplifier as he cut through paper added an almost interactive element to the performance that nodded towards the first step in collage: tearing something apart.

John McVay, *What Does It Mean To Be Stepped On By Someone*

Featured in the show is a collection of work that feels like it’s coming from a place of play as much as passion. The collage medium—call it craft or call it art, here they exist as one—demands that one rethinks and rearranges what is otherwise taken as is. The work of Torn Together goes in as many different directions as there are artists, but the shared love for the medium is palpable.

The Las Vegas Collage Collective continues to push experimentation and skill-building via workshops and meet-ups, aiming to “create a world where everyone feels inspired to explore their personal creativity.”

Las Vegas Collage Collective, Torn Together

ASAP - Available Space Art Projects, 900 Liberace Ave C-214, Las Vegas, Nevada 89109

February 20th - 29th, 2024

Images courtesy Las Vegas Collage Collective

Las Vegas Collage Collective: Carina Arriaga, Jeffrey Bennington Grindley, Jorge Lara, Chad Martinez, John McVay, Laura M. Meyer, JK Russ, and Jim White.

Las Vegas Collage Collective celebrates World Collage Day 2024 on May 13 from 6-9PM at Lulu 971 Lulu Avenue, Las Vegas

Instagram: @lvcollage

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/lvcollage

Rose Miller is a Bachelor of Fine Arts student at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. You can find Rose on Instagram @chainlink_roses

Posted on May 5th, 2024 by Lyssa Park