By Margaret Orr
This article originally appeared in ArtTrader Magazine, Autumn 2010 Issue 12
If you’re at all like me, you probably got into collage fairly randomly – started sticking things together, read a few books, tried out techniques, experimented, played, fooled around – sometimes with startlingly spectacular effects, and often with equally spectacular messes!
I am insatiably curious, and so did some formal research into collage. I was surprised to discover that a number of techniques which I thought were just “messing around” actually have really fancy terminological labels. So here’s a list for you. It’s probably incomplete, but interesting nevertheless. Maybe you’ll find you’ve been doing grattage without knowing it, and maybe you’ll be inspired to try something new.
Aleatoric – art which exploits the principle of randomness; the creation of art by chance. The word derives from the Latin word alea, the rolling of Dice.
Assemblage - a form of sculpture comprised of “found” objects arranged in such a way that they create a piece. Assemblage is “supposed”; to be three-dimensional and different from collage, which is “supposed” to be two-dimensional (though both are similarly eclectic in nature and composition).
Bricolage – something made or put together using whatever materials happen to be available.
Chiasmage – consistent destruction of the primary motifs. The structures of various types of print, of music sheets, letters, geographic and star maps, chessboards or photographs are torn to little pieces and then put together again and glued to a base.
Collage – both an artwork made from objects that are glued down onto a surface, such as a piece of paper, canvas, or board, and the technique of making such an artwork.
Digital Example of Confrontage, art by Margaret Orr
Confrontage – placing intact images next to each other, counting on hinting at some connections.
Crumblage - crumbling and deforming images, shifting, twisting and interrupting parts of the main motifs.
Decalcomania – making an impression into thick wet paint.
Decoupage – art produced by decorating a surface with cutouts and then coating it with several layers of varnish or lacquer.
Digital Collage – a form of graphic art that pieces together images from different sources into one final image. This can be done in a way that adds elements to the surroundings of the main subjects to enhance it, or to add / remove / substitute elements of the main subject itself. It is usually somewhat obvious that it’s made by pasting different images together, which is different from photo-manipulation where the idea is to create the illusion of a seamless reality.
Farrago – an unorganized mixture, hodgepodge, or disjointed collection of elements and techniques.
Femmage – a type of collage that includes textile art, traditionally produced by women.
Froissage – a method of collage in which the lines made by crumpling up a piece of paper are used to create a drawing
Frottage – light relief rubbing.
Fumage – smoking an image (see instructions at http://www.wikihow.com/Paint-with-Smoke).
Grattage – scraping or scratching the top layer off the surface to reveal surfaces below.
Example of Rollage in an Altered book, art by Margaret Orr
Marouflage – (a French word originally referring to sticky, partly-hardened scraps of paint) is a technique for affixing a painted canvas to a wall to be used as a mural, using an adhesive that hardens as it dries such as plaster or cement.
Montage – the technique of combining in a single composition pictorial elements from various sources, as parts of different photographs or fragments of printing, either to give the illusion that the elements belonged together originally or to allow each element to retain its separate identity as a means of adding interest or meaning to the composition.
Parsemage – a method of making an image by scattering dust from charcoal or colored chalk on water and then skimming the design off by passing a stiff paper or cardboard just under the water’s surface.
Prolage – a method of creating vistas by inserting images into holes cut or torn in the base material.
Reverse Collage – unlike traditional collages, which build up from the bottom, a reverse collage is done on plexiglass from the front to back.
Rollage – cutting up a picture reproduction into strips and then putting them together again according to previously laid down rules.
Ventillage in an Altered Book, art by Margaret Orr
Ventillage – a form of collage in which the collaged elements are fixed only in a part of their surface, thus being able to move to a certain extent.
What technique will you try next? Fumage sounds rather dangerous, and frottage sounds rather creepy. And I have to admit I found the term femmage rather patronizing. What would the male equivalent be, I wonder? Masculage – a form of collage using a hammer and nails? And how about staplage, a form of collage using staples, traditionally practiced by secretaries?
Regardless of what your techniques are called, I hope you have lots of fun using them!
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