Collage · Mixed Media
Elias Hart
Manchester, United Kingdom
“A fragment keeps the tone of its old purpose even after the instructions are gone.”
Biography
Elias Hart assembles collages from packaging, technical manuals, painted paper, and fragments of obsolete maps. The work converts functional graphics into unstable invented systems.
Artist statement
Discarded diagrams still carry authority. I cut them apart to see how quickly that authority can become absurd, tender, or beautiful.
In the studio
Hart cuts by hand, avoids digital scaling, and uses reversible wheat paste. Surfaces are finished with graphite and occasional passages of matte acrylic. Small layered panels condense the paper fragments and worn surfaces of his larger collages.
