Artists in the Archives: European Collagists' Perspectives

In Fall 2022 and Winter 2023, Kolaj Institute is presenting a series of Kolaj LIVE Online events in partnership with the Henry Sheldon Museum’s Stewart-Swift Research Center as part of the exhibition, “Artists in the Archive” . On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Stewart-Swift Research Center, the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History invited an international network of collage artists to engage with historic material in the archive and to create a folio of collage prints that reflect on the idea of community in a 21st century world. Learn more about the project HERE .
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Stewart-Swift Research Center, the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History invited an international network of collage artists to engage with historic material in the archive and to create a folio of collage prints that reflect on the idea of community in a 21st century world. Five artists who participated in the project did so from Europe. What did their unique perspective draw from the archive? Polish artist Marta Janik was taken with images of trees she found perusing Stewart-Swift Research Center material found in the virtual collection of the University of Vermont’s Landscape Change Program. Her collage asks us to think about the role trees play in our communities. Scottish artist Jack Ravi collages the myriad of stories held in the archives as a way of juxtaposing the complex, rich history of remembering with the simultaneous fact of forgetting and obfuscation. To update an early twentieth century postcard that imagines the future of Middlebury, Irish artist Anthony D Kelly combines advertisements for Phoenix Clothes, Dexter Shoes, and Otis Elevator Company from the 1970s with a postcard of Main Street Middlebury found in the Stewart-Swift Research Center archives. Moved by her own experience of the war in Ukraine, Lilya Chavaga considers the social aspects of food by collaging elements of a modern grocery store into a 1900 photograph of R. S. Benedict’s Store at 5 Merchants Row. Inspired by Henry Sheldon’s 1884 Memorial Chair, which is made of wooden fragments with historical significance, Danish artist Klara Espersen imagines a monument in Otter Creek made of memorial items found in the archive. Join these artists and project curator, Ric Kasini Kadour for a conversation about European perspectives on Vermont history and place.
ABOUT KOLAJ LIVE ONLINE
Kolaj LIVE Online is a series of virtual programs in the form of forums, panels, workshops, artist talks, studio visits, and other activities that allow people to come together, learn and talk about collage, and connect in real time to the collage community. Our goal is to bring the community together in a spirit of mutual support and fellowship.Kolaj LIVE Online manifests Kolaj Magazine and Kolaj Institute by bringing together artists, curators, and writers to share ideas that deepen our understanding of collage as a medium, a genre, a community, and a 21st century movement. Learn more at the SERIES WEBSITE .