“Rock, Paper, Scissor” Group Collage/Assemblage Exhibition. October 11th through November 15th, 2014. Opening Reception, Saturday October 11th, 5-7pm, in conjunction with Catskill’s Second Saturday Stroll. GCCA Catskill Gallery, 398 Main Street, Catskill, NY. Gallery Hours: M-F 10-5, Sat. 12-5. FREE.

Collage and assemblage both encapsulate the industrious nature of artists who translate discarded scraps, magazines, fabric, wood and plastic into new languages. Familiar sights become recontextualized, causing the viewer to consider the world with fresh eyes. It can be often be surprising and powerful how artists shift the limits of pop culture or consumer materials to suit their own, more specific needs.

Assemblage and collage are also process-oriented crafts: the very acts of cutting, glueing and hammering nearly feel outdated with the speed of modern technology and communication. The delicious slowness of collecting elements, whittling them down, and reconnecting them with care has become a rarity. Before graphic design was a computer-dominated field, it was hand-made with collage. Before 3-D printers, artists fashioned models of the world with their bare hands. Artists indulge in reverie and escape in the sensation of materials between the finger tips, of fine motor skills being flexed.