A collage made by a Powell River artist was included in an international show recently.
Rita Rasmussen’s work, Sometimes I Dream of Freedom, was included in the 13th International Collage Exhibition and Exchange.
This year 115 artists from 10 different countries contributed to the event. Their works were displayed at the Percy Thomson Gallery in Stratford, New Zealand.
Rasmussen said she has participated in the exchange for three years, along with an artist friend from Toronto. She has sold two pieces, including the piece she submitted this year, a collaged woodpecker/human. “I’ve had lots of positive comments about it,” Rasmussen said. “It’s part of a series that will become a (sort of) comic book, inclusive of mystery, philosophy and comedy. The main characters, detectives, are woodpeckers, the hybrid version. It’s quite fun.”
The exchange is an international art sharing initiative organized by Dale Copeland of Puniho, Taranaki. Each artist sends a packet of 13 collages. One collage from each artist is offered for sale, both online and from the Percy Thomson Gallery. Another work is selected to be part of the collection of works donated to an art institute somewhere in the world.
Those not sold or selected are sent in mixed packs back to the artists. “It’s a great exchange with artists from all over the world,” said Rasmussen. “The organizer is an amazing person and artist. She makes it all happen.”
Collage, which brings together totally unrelated figurative elements to create new ideas and associations, is one of the primary tools of surrealism. Rasmussen said she’ll be taking in a new exhibition of surrealists works at the Vancouver Art Gallery this summer. Entitled The Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art is the most comprehensive Surrealism exhibition ever mounted in Canada. It runs until September 25.
The images from the 13th exchange can be viewed online.
