When Thinking in an Unusual Way


KOLAJ #23

Becomes a Strength Rather Than a Weakness

In Kolaj #23, Virginie Maltais offers a remarkable first-person account of how “collage felt like a liberation.” She writes, “The first time I wrote my name, it was in reverse. For me, that was the natural way to write. That was also my first confrontation with the fact that I would have to fit into society. I always had a strange relationship with words. As a child, language was a problem, the words did not make any sense…Why did “yesterday” mean “yesterday” and why was “today” defined as “today”? Why was everything already defined? I often mixed the words “elbows” and “knees”, because for me they were simply the names for two different joints, parts of the same body grouping. I had already taught myself to make visual links between letters and groups of letters, rather than literal ones. You see, I am dyslexic. I can’t read properly. I deduct, I guess. For a long time, I have carried the shame of not having the capacity to decode words quickly like everyone else.”

This article appeared in Kolaj #23. To see more, SUBSCRIBE to Kolaj Magazine or Get a Copy of the Issue.

Finally, there was no “right” or “wrong” answer. With collage, the order of images from magazines can be deconstructed and reorganized as I envision them as opposed to how society expects them to be.


Virginie Maltais was born in Quebec City and currently lives in Montreal. She holds a bachelor’s degree in art with a focus on advertising and cinema studies from the University of Montreal. She also works as a fashion model. She actively shows her work with the Quebec Collage group at Usine 106C and shows regularly in group and solo shows around Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec. Read more about Maltais’ work at www.virginiemaltais.com.

This article appeared in Kolaj #23. To see more, SUBSCRIBE to Kolaj Magazine or Get a Copy of the Issue.

Images: (top to bottom)
Caresser la houle du revers de la main
Perdu dans la fôret de l’oublie
Sauve ta peau