Cutting Edge: Collage in Britain, 1900 to Now

Collage pieces together fragments. It builds them up into an aggregation of conjunctions, contradictions and superimpositions. It experiments with found and broken forms, and explores lack and incompleteness. While doing so, it also speaks of superabundance, hyper-production and the acceleration of image circulation. Collage embraces polyphony and has been used to resist the identification of any one subject or perspective as normative.

Collage seems to gain heightened currency in times of national and international crisis. It has offered searing and satirical responses to authority and aggression. At key moments of political struggle, it has been mobilised to suggest alternative viewpoints and dismantle dominant narratives. Collage cuts across cultures. It has the potential to overlay the local and the global, and to address questions of borders, barriers and modes of exchange.

This conference is intended to explore these and other aspects of collage in relation to visual culture in Britain, from 1900 to today. It invites fresh perspectives on collage as a practice and on its contribution to modern and contemporary British visual culture.

We welcome academic papers and practice-led contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following topics:

- Collage and British visual culture
- Britain and beyond: collage and the transnational
- Collage politics: resistance, representation and identity
- Collage technologies and materialities
- Collage methodologies and historiographies

Proposals are invited for 20-minute contributions to the conference. Submissions should include a title, abstract (500 words maximum), short author’s bio (150 words maximum), institutional affiliation (if applicable) and contact details.

Submissions should be sent to: researchtate.org.uk

Deadline for abstract submissions: 2 December 2019