Bloc

1989-1990
Photocopy, grid paper, woodcut print, pattern paper, lead and oil paint
56 x 41 centimeters

The name of this collage comes from the description formerly given to countries aligned with a particular political affiliation, usually communism. The images of those countries frequently depicted a type of human hive of umpteen anonymous apartment blocks interrupted by an occassional piece of pro forma sculpture designed to project political propaganda.

The architecture in Bloc came from a woodcut print I had previously made about the theme of branding. Grid paper, that stationery item synonymous with uniformity, has been inserted for a background, it is overlaid with strips of lead sheet fashioned into blobs and swirls, a intimation of the unrepressed psyche. The low quality material this world is built from is metaphorically re-enforced by the application of torn strips of sticky tape.

The background of the Figures in a Landscape collages