The Ends of Collage

In our present moment, defined increasingly by rupture and change, the medium of collage has taken on renewed signifcance in the way that it critically reflects these forces while also visually reproducing them. Born during the age of mechanical reproduction, collage was transformed again during the digital revolution of the 1970s, when the material cut was replaced by the art of reframing, and physical paste by rephotography. Collage nowadays reflects a world dominated by the pervasive forces of globalistion and technological manipulation, where a whirlwind of information, voices, and images flows constantly in and out of our consciousness.

The nineteen essays gathered here – written by artists, theorists, and historians – all seek to define collage with reference to the notion of ‘ends’: the physical, historical, technological, or ideological extremities through which it operates and that distinguish it from other media. Chosen in accordance with a desire to review the history of collage and reignite a discussion about it, the selected texts are grouped according to their subject, rather than chronologically.