German Surrealist Max Ernst described collage as the “chance meeting of two distant realities on an unfamiliar plane.”[1] This idea – to enmesh, abstract, layer, juxtapose, alter, or activate a multiplicity of diverse objects together as one – is the essence of collage. Paperwork? Collage and its expanded field probes the pre-conceived notion of collage as ‘paperwork’, a view deriving from its early twentieth-century beginnings. The exhibition invites eight Melbourne artists, to ruminate and explore different ways a collage could be realised. The synthesis of their eclectic responses acts as a long–form answer to a seemingly simple question.

[1] Max Ernst, “Beyond Painting,” in The Ends of Collage, ed. Yuval Etgar (London: Luxembourg & Dayan, 2017) 119-139.