Disfigured Bodies: The Human as a Medium in the Collages of James Gallagher and Sophie Jodoin

Toronto-based artist Jp King visited the studios of two artists: James Gallagher of Brooklyn, New York, USA and Sophie Jodoin of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  Amongst the immediately recognizable qualities of both artists, their exclusive colour palettes speak of the worlds they inhabit. Jodoin works in an entirely monochromatic, grayscale world, absent of the vintage comforts of Gallagher’s creams, browns, yellows, and stained and weathered pages. There is something familiar and unsettling about the black-and-white world. It harkens back to a cinematic myth that the modern era lived in a time absent of colour. Gallagher’s patchwork of endpapers, flyleaves, scraps and title pages suggest that his people occupy a liminal space at the boundary of narrative.

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image: Hug 2 by James Gallagher, 8″ x 10″, collage, 2007