Collage challenge

I went to the London Art Fair last night, managing to get there and back in a weather window gap in Norfolk's  week of snow and ice. The presentations from the newer and fresher galleries usually provide more stimulus and visual excitement - although they probably don't make as much money from sales. 

The visit strengthened my resolve to try and push my collage work further in terms of materials, format and colour and taking them more into the sculptural. I've been teetering on this edge for a couple of years now at least and blaming lack of time for not being braver in the work.

At a slight tangent, a delivery of A1 (not A0 this time) flyposter Iran stamp collage images was waiting for me on my return from London. They were not scanned on a black background this time, so the perforated pattern edging the stamp blends in to the background - not sure whether I like that.

Irandar

Tomorrow I start my 5 day residency at The Queen of Hungary Project Space - www.queenofhungary.co.uk . 

Excitingly I 'd ordered some posters with that rough fly poster quality and they arrived in double quick time on Friday. I've blown-up one of my stamp collages, "Irandar", to A0 size, so the radar image is more obvious. I much prefer them original size, original collage, with the cuts and blemishes in glorious 3D visibility, but the flattening in the print is interesting and the image remains bold with lovely graphic qualities 100 times bigger and 100 times more pronounced. I've also done a negative version which has a harsh grey green, almost with a fluorescent attitude.  I like that as it reminds me of Cold War posters and reference to alien invasions and UFOs.
Over the next  5 days I willbe able to consider in detail where to put the two versions of "Irandar".  I like the idea of pasting them onto some corrugated iron (part of a demolished Nissen Hut) that is stacked behind the Project Space, but it is only borrowed and would be a pain to try and get off afterwards (as I remember from the huge fly posters we pasted up on King's Street, Norwich next to Dragon Hall).

Persepolis & the industrial structure

I'm having trouble thinking of a bland and ambiguous title for this set of stamp collages. Dams and bridges seem somehow more iconic or appealing than the tower-block image, but they do appear to be rising phoenix-like from the Persepolis ruins.  
However, I now have a collection of cut-out iconic portraits of the Shah, edited from the stamps......

 Another view of the Republican Palace and also dam pylons in the distance

Another dam, not sure if it is the reservoir I boated on (in a rowing sense), trailing my hand in the water to try to cool down .

Merowe Dam stamp

Sudan from the Triumph Album 1945 perspective

A lot can happen within a country in 65 years and the Triumph pen sketch seems to almost apply to a completely different country from what I have read.   The visa finally arrived for Khartoum this week, the flight now booked for Sunday, so I will soon have a more up to date perspective. 

Pre and post Iranian Revolution

An interesting contrast, the top one colliding circa 1945 with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the lower one using as the base image a stamp that is presumably just post revolution? Also, again joining together historic architecture and signs of modern progress.

A predominance of bridges and dams amongst the stamps I'm  selecting from and using, and so the practical and symbolic importance of water in Iran and of demonstrating progress.

From a 1945 Triumph Illustrated stamp album

One version with extra watermark, one without.  I seem to have quite a number of poppy stamps (1998) from my cousin .The office is still half packed in boxes, half strewn in piles of paper, files and photos and making use of a hi-fi box as a table.

Actual size version made using a sharper scalpel blade.

the matching pair of low-fi collages

Rose Garden stamps again 200%, still deciding about scale and the postmarks.I feel unsettled and out of place, so this gives me minutiae to focus on. Also reading the complete Sherlock Holmes and listening to the Pixies live 'Sell Out'. Not sure if it helps.

In the loft again and finally found my old stamp album. This collage is at least double the size, but perhaps with the aid of a magnifying glass I can do the cutting out on the actual stamps.