Hope Kroll, Hidden Persuaders, 2006.
I’m getting a little over-excited poring through Kroll’s rather Max Ernst-inspired collages, cobbled together like eerie anatomical palimpsests from a frequently whimsical, sometimes fragile-looking range of antique ephemera. From the artist’s statement:
I use antique books as my main source material and for the past seven years, I have devoted myself to the technique of cut-paper collage.
In these works, either the book covers themselves, or the antique blank paper found in old books serve as the ‘canvas’ upon which I assemble the intricately cut-out images.
Culled from a wide range of sources, my visual lexicon is composed of diverse images gleaned from old encyclopedias, medical texts, children’s books, popular science, technical manuals, paper dolls and antique photographs to name a few. Because of the high quality of the color plates and lithography found in the actual printings, I prefer to use original found materials. Copied or scanned images cannot come close to the originals in terms of overall visual impact. The aged paper offers a beautiful natural patina and a muted palette I find particularly attractive. I feel that these older books and photographs are especially compelling as they each possess their own unique history, having passed through many hands before coming into my possession.
