“Thanatopsis,” 2018, paper collage, 6×9″
“Landscape,” 2018, paper collage, 7×5″
“Mountain Valley,” 2018, paper collage, 4×5″
These images are all hand-cut collages using reproductions of Frederic Remington etchings. In each piece, I remove the figure/subject through a process of collage and camouflage. What remains is (for the most part) a simple landscape with subtle traces of what was, and the hand-cut alterations. By removing the human element from these pictures, I attempt to raise questions about historical documentation and authorship, the representation and erasure of certain peoples, the impact of colonialism, and the conquest/discovery of the West/wilderness.
My collage practice is primarily about processing and responding to the world’s ever-increasing repository of images. It’s a digestion, a meditation, and a slowing-down — but it’s also about (hand)making and creating new meanings through editing and juxtaposition. The formal outcomes and significance of my works vary widely depending on my source material, though the main strategy I employ usually begins with the removal/erasure/obfuscation of the subject. This process divests the source material of its initial and intended meaning. Untied from their original contexts, these objects can become something entirely new, while sometimes (and simultaneously) echoing back to the worlds from which they’ve emerged.
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Paul Henderson is an artist and graphic designer based in Toronto, Ontario.