Beagle
In 1991 in Amsterdam I began what would eventually become Beagle. Back then, I used the pages I tore from magazines to create collages, loosely bundling like images together for later use. In the intervening years, Beagle has grown into a significant archive and a useful resource. It not only provides fodder for collages but also valuable information on endless topics.
Magazines pulped since 2009*
Metric tonnes of paper*
Retail value in Euros of magazines pulped in Europe since 2009
*
I didn’t tally the number of magazines I pulped before 2009. I estimate that the figures quoted above be doubled, at least.
In 2009, I painted my filing cabinets in colours chosen based on their name. This allowed me to file my tearsheets in idiosyncratic and unexpected ways.
Paint name colours include: bedazzled, forever bright, grey matter, logical, masterpiece, murky water, patriot, pollywaffle, power punch, pucker up, razzamatazz, scrumptious, shutterbug, smokey high, skyways, well-being and worldy.
It’s fair to say that I have an obsession with magazines. That obsession grew into Beagle, an ongoing archival project that creates collages that comment on society’s various fixations and compulsions.
The name references the hounds who stay on the track of a scent — think Gromit, who always knows what’s going on, or the ship that Charles Darwin travelled on that led to his groundbreaking work, The Origin of Species.
My first exhibition, Extort, was of collages and happened years before I started art school and my eventual PhD. They tackled consumerism, commodification, monoculture, manipulation and sexuality.
Large-scale works have formed from collected images.
Greed Weasel
Money & power
This portrait could be based on any number of people, mostly men, I’d argue. This very early work, naive in its perspective, was trying to understand greed and the pursuit of money over, seemingly, all else.
As a thread, capitalism hums under the surface in my work. I’m interested in how we allow some to pilfer everything, and how it’s now out of control.
Stack attraction
In boxes, in trays or just mounting on the floor, stack of pages like these await processing. Cutting for a particular collage or delicately tearing chosen portions to work with.
Filing work is endless. Torn pages are gathered by theme or thread and filed into boxes or drawers for later use or for inspiration.
Beagle
Open studio, 2012. Dimensions variable. Ongoing research and work development.