A new book from the omnipotent artist and cult filmmaker, Jim Jarmusch - Some Collages (published by Anthology Editions), features a foreword by Luc Sante, and a thoughtful essay by Randy Kennedy, and is set for release date is September 28,. Over the years, Jarmusch has added to his oeuvre, honing his collage art practice, producing hundreds of works using newspaper clippings layered on cardstock. He did this while on the road travelling, between takes when filming, in those nondescript hotel rooms when jetlag sets in.
In the monograph we find newsprint imagery cleverly and humorously ma nipulated, heads and faces are removed and replaced with juxtaposing or absurd imagery. The pieces not only pay homage to the documentation medium but are a reminder of how even the most mundane stock photography can be alternatively funny, scary and strange.
Although Jim Jarmusch is best known for his storied career in independent cinema, over the years he has produced hundreds of pieces of collage art, the majority of which has been rarely seen by the public. Drawing inspiration from the largest medium of cultural documentation—newspapers—Jarmusch delicately crafts each work by layering newsprints on cardstock. Doppelgänger Andy Warhols are posed in a vast tunnel not unlike the depths of the Large Hadron Collider, Patty Hearst’s mugshots drift across Edwardian portraits, and a man’s identity is disguised with a coyote’s head: maybe he was a celebrity, politician, perp, or all three. In Some Collages, these small-scale (notecard-size) pieces not only pay homage to the documentation medium but are a reminder of how even mundane images can be reconfigured into work that is alternatively funny, scary and strange.
