A Pop-Up Hommage in the Spirit of Burrough’s and Gysin’s Cut-Up Innovations
A Note on the Visual Journals
This Pop-up exhibition features over a dozen Cut-Up collages of scraps culled from printed matter from the 1990s when the Beats were still active. The reformatted color collages of archival cultural documents adds an autobiographical layer to not only my ongoing multi-disciplinary artwork, but adds a glimpse into the rich popular visual cultural milieux of the times.
The collages are akin to a visual artist’s diary. Colorful pages capture geographical and cultural imagery. Cut-out ads, clips and photos from a medley of public events scatter across the page like a crazy quilt. As you walk by this pop-up paper installation you’ll find towns, cafes, museums and performances I visited. The Cut-up scraps provide a curated visual documentation of time and place based visual culture. To view is to share what I experienced with an emphasis on my predilection for literary, artistic, beat era, fluxus and multicultural events and happenings.
Publicity flyers reveal original graphic designs and “found” typography. A time capsule of found visuals, the collages are maps of cultural life.
There is an aspect of my visual journal practice that suggests an alchemical transformation. The scraps meld into readable maps. There is also an element of chance involved since not all events I attended generated paper scraps e.g. ticket stubs, program notes, matchbook covers, movie ads, brochures, etc. Each collage captures multiple public events. When viewed in a group the collages generate a spontaneous, eclectic paper trail.
Marilyn Stablein, Portland, Oregon 2023
Marilyn Stablein is an award winning
multidisciplinary artist working in poetry, prose, collage, assemblage and photography. Her sculptural artist’s books, altered books and performance art concern visual narrative, travelog and memoir.
Her illustrated artist books include: Tantric Song Lines: A Hybrid Sutra (2024), The Rat Tavern (2023), The Company of Crows, (2022), and Elephant Chronicles (2022).
Her collages, assemblages and artist books are in private and public collections including: SUNY Buffalo, Yale University Beinecke Library, Brown University Library, The British Library, University of Washington Suzallo & Allen Libraries Special Collections, UC San Diego Special Collections, and the University of Edmonton. https://www.marilynstablein.com/