“Can’t Wait Till Next Year” by Eugenia Loli

This was the first collage I ever made. I made it for the Mausspace community, a forum dedicated to indie musician and philosopher John Maus. I had just finished an animated music video that I did for one of his songs, so collaging came right after it (it was the natural progression of the knowledge I accumulated while making the video). All this was in April of this year, just a few short months ago. Looking back, I could have made this first collage better, but for a very first effort, I think it came out good-enough. The “traditional” surrealistic atmosphere of what I had in mind when I conceived it came through, I believe.

This collage is primarily about John’s self-described need to “appear”. Every statue of his in the collage is one more effort, and one step closer to the desire of big success (symbolized by the woman’s statue). Getting closer to success would also bring him closer to the mega-city in the background though, the place where people lose their authenticity, their identity, and their values. So success becomes kind of a double-edged sword. As for the two people with the umbrellas, it’s his fans. Fans usually have the best intentions in mind, but they often become harsh curators. They would review, or even criticize his work and that’s a questionable move. It’s easy for the fans to do this, since most speak under the protection of anonymity online (hence the umbrellas).

I got positive feedback from John Maus’ fans about my collages, so I kept going at it. Around July (after quite a few failed attempts), I believe I reached the point where I finally had something worthy to show to the world. “Rules and Regulations” is still one of my favorites collages.

Today, the popular culture magazine CoolHunting posted an article about my work. This was my first interview as an artist, so this is all very exciting for me. A few hours later, WeAreTheFrontier also posted an article about my collages too.

9 months ago  /  157 notes