9.8″x7″; mixed media collage; 2024. Courtesy of the artist.
COLLAGE ON VIEW
Ian Tothill: Curious
at the South Square Centre in Bradford, England, United Kingdom
2-24 November 2024
Ian Tothill’s interest in collage making was sparked by making an image for his daughter’s zine during lockdown in 2020. He has been playing with paper ever since and has had work included in collage books and several group exhibitions around the world.
“Curious” is a collection of collages made from all kinds of discarded materials–old books, packaging, envelopes, photos, magazines, flyers and more. They have been reassembled to form pictures which reflect his curiosity about color, ideas, memory, shape, stories. Some are abstract, others are populated by characters and images given new life with imagined narratives.
One for Sorrow (above) refers to a saying about when one sees magpies. “One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, etc.” Seeing magpies was believed to be a predictor of future events. In the collage, there is a solitary magpie hidden underneath. Tothill is also picking up on Max Porter’s 2015 novel, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, in which a heartbroken father tries to support his young children in the aftermath of their mother’s death. They devise stories about grief being represented by a crow and eventually find ways to survive. Tothill often makes collages which are illustrations of scenes from novels. His ambition is to collaborate with an author before they publish, and maybe put an illustrated version together.
Tothill is the founder of South Square Collage Club, a monthly gathering of people who want to have a go at collage, the most accessible medium.
(text adapted from material provided by the artist)
INFORMATION
Unit 9
South Square Centre
Thornton Road
Bradford, West Yorkshire BD13 3LD, United Kingdom
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