Collaged tiles and the process.

Right from the beginning of the project I knew that I wanted to create a similar texture to Villegle's work that I saw in the Allouche Gallery and the texture of a pole that I found on the Brooklyn Bridge that was covered in stickers (shown below) so I immediately set out to do so. I realised that paper or canvas wasn't going to get the same texture as metal for example would, so I remembered that in the Subway, there were stickers over the tiles on the walls and when peeled back, a nice texture was left. I think that the smoothness of the material was what would allow this rough yet interesting texture to be shown. This is why I knew that I should create this almost collage like composition on tiles.

Brooklyn Bridge
Pole covered in stickers

Jacques Villegle
Posters ripped and collaged
Allouche Gallery
Quai De Grenelle

Using both of these images as an inspiration, I went on to produce my collages:

Step 1 - Firstly, I had to create a base layer made up of bright colours from magazines, in the hope that the next layer of magazine/newspaper would balance the colour out. In some of the tiles, I managed to use colours that worked well together in both harmonious and contrasting ways. I then placed a thin layer of PVA glue over the top as this base layer was not going to be ripped.

Step 2 - I added another layer that was solely just emulsion. I wanted to have a more subtle amount of colour into the collages and I think by adding this emulsion I have been successful in doing what I wanted. I didn't want to over power the collages so I didn't add too much to the composition and the layout of the emulsion onto the first layer did not matter much due to the fact I was about to add another layer of magazines/newspaper.

Step 3 - I then went and teared newspapers up and tried to match colours on each tile to see what would work well together and then stuck them down for the next layer. I then went and added a further layer of emulsion, but this time it was brilliant white rather than the off white colour as I though this would balance out the colours more. I didn't want the layers to be thick though as I didn't want the white to overpower the colour in the compositions. In order to achieve a texture similar to that I saw in New York, I started ripping away areas of the newspaper and magazine to get a worn out effect. 

Step 4 - I then started to place my own photos from New York into the compositions on the tiles so that they would represent my experience within New York. Almost like a time capsule of my memories. I tried to match the colour palette of the photos with a similar colour palette on the tiles, which worked fairly well. I then added another layer of emulsion over the top of this to balance the colours out and increase the amount of subtleness.