Exhibition: Rand Carlson: Lithographic Tin Collage

Dates: March 3 - April 12, 2006

Opening Reception: March 13 from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday, 10-6 pm. and prior to performances.

Location: Temple Gallery, 330 South Scott Avenue, in the Temple of Music and Art. The Temple Gallery is managed by Etherton Gallery 

Contact:    Jerre Johnston at 624-7370

Contents: From wrecking yard automobile name plates to castoffs found at thrift stores, swap meets and yard sales, Rand Carlson recycles and quilts together pieces of tin to create collages of shifting realities. Through the medium of collage he uses his initially worthless confrontation of fragments to, as he states, “mimic elements of thought, emotions, and even a diverse society.” By disconnecting the colors, patterns and letter forms from their original context of holiday decorations and general kitsch, Carlson enters the complex realm of poetic creation with random materials that carry an aura of associations.  

Adhered onto found wood scraps by hundreds of small tacks, the work obtains permanence not evident in its earlier incarnation. Carlson’s technique has to do with sorting metal fragments by color, texture, and subject, “I do not alter the surface in any way. It is an editing process for me. The bright colors printed on the tin became my brushes, fractured images my palette. Cookies become mountains, bubbles become clouds, and a circus tent becomes a fiery sunset. I let the fragments tell me who they want to be in this new metal afterlife.”  Within his pictorial retelling, Carlson displaces and then creates a new context for meaning, as he says, “Did you know that you can turn 'DODGE RAM' into 'GOD DREAM'?

WOW!