Dellasposa Gallery presents three new print editions, which showcase Ehryn Torrell’s secondary collage.
Titled Secondary Collage: International Collections, the second part of their name refers to text on the front cover of the magazine issue used in their creation. They are part of a collage series made during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, when Torrell sourced imagery from the pages of September 2008 British Vogue. This issue was chosen to connect the pandemic, which intersects human life, societal relations and economics, to the global financial crisis and the fall of the Lehmann Brothers bank in September 2008. In Torrell’s secondary collage works, the fashion source material is more evident than in her embroidered textile paintings where, for example, the imagery is more fragmented and ambiguous. In this way, they add significant meaning and context to her practice. Through the visible tear marks, layering and glimpses of recognisable subject matter in these prints, the artist aims to communicate a resistance to recognition and wholeness, where images are slowed and exposed as constructions, opening the possibility for different imaginings.
Working with Dellasposa on the print edition, Torrell wrote the following:
“Re-reading the magazine material I use to make collage has become an important part of my art practice. For me, the secondary collage is evidence that something happened while I was busy doing something else. By turning them into artworks, images that were formed by the debris of my process have a chance to speak.”