As Is
...you will be able to see in them a resemblance to various landscapes adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide valleys and hills.
Leonardo da Vinci
Treatise on Painting, Chapter CLXIII — The Method of Awakening the Mind to a Variety of Inventions
The words "as" and "is" perfectly describe the aesthetic of the objet trouvé and the mutual dedication to collage and assemblage as a creative format between my work and Salvatore Meo's work (b. Philadelphia 1914–2004 d. Rome). As a common phrase, "as is" denotes an existing condition of something without any modifications or improvements. But as individual words, they respectively offer different levels of comparison — key ingredients of all collage-based work. While Meo and I often "assist" — to borrow Marcel Duchamp's use of the term — the objet trouvé with additional found things, our initial selections always emphasize the weathered look, which holds inherent resemblances and mentally transportive qualities. Whereas our shared interests and aesthetics are always poetic, sometimes Meo's work engages with similes, but most often, Meo's work transposes what is physically literal into a kind of visual poetry. Whereas my work is always about metaphorical referencing, mixed with actual quotation, my work moves beyond Meo's purest formalism to embrace conceptual possibilities illuminating landscape and ecology's history.
The As Is collages and assemblages are related to a body of work I initiated in 2011. I began the Landscape Vernacular collage series with the realization that I had accrued a collection of dictionaries spanning two centuries, and I wondered, over a decade ago, if I could locate the precise dictionary volumes to document the Western World removing "humans" from the definition of "nature." Since then, I have diligently expanded my dictionary collection to pursue the wanted illustrations. Just a few months before coming to Rome, I collected two dictionaries demonstrating the "removal." I located the evidence I sought during my July artist residency at Weir Farm (Wilton, CT) and obtained the needed final dictionary edition during my Rome residency at the Fondazione Salvatore Meo. As Is is as much about realizing my decade-long aspirations as it is about exploring shared aesthetics. Concomitant to the As Is exhibition, the Landscape Vernacular exhibition presents the parent series at Anna Maria College (Paxton, MA). Together, from both sides of the Atlantic, As Is and Landscape Vernacular shed light on discarded things and Western Culture.
For the As Is series, I worked with the collection of definitions and various quotes about 'nature,' and I limited my materials to Roman ephemera and objets trouvés. Among the materials I worked with are those I found and purchased while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design's European Honors Program in Rome between 1984 and 1985, along with newly acquired materials I purchased from antique bookshops and Porta Portese vendors in December of 2023. I also amassed and worked with materials found on the streets of Rome—most of which were obtained at Porta Portese during the clean-up hours this past December. I also culled discarded materials from Salvatore Meo's studio to augment the As Is assemblages and collages. Finally, I recommended works of Meo's to include in As Is to provide viewers with live comparisons between our respective approaches to composite creation.
As Is presents collages that rely upon materials for their suggestive resemblance to something else in which blank, water-stained, and 'bookworm-eaten' paper becomes an atmospheric sky or landscape setting. The imagery of As Is also raises questions about global conditions, "actions," and whether or not things, as they exist, should remain as is.
Todd Bartel
Rome, 2023
...you will be able to see in them a resemblance to various landscapes adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide valleys and hills.
Leonardo da Vinci
Treatise on Painting, Chapter CLXIII — The Method of Awakening the Mind to a Variety of Inventions
The words "as" and "is" perfectly describe the aesthetic of the objet trouvé and the mutual dedication to collage and assemblage as a creative format between my work and Salvatore Meo's work (b. Philadelphia 1914–2004 d. Rome). As a common phrase, "as is" denotes an existing condition of something without any modifications or improvements. But as individual words, they respectively offer different levels of comparison — key ingredients of all collage-based work. While Meo and I often "assist" — to borrow Marcel Duchamp's use of the term — the objet trouvé with additional found things, our initial selections always emphasize the weathered look, which holds inherent resemblances and mentally transportive qualities. Whereas our shared interests and aesthetics are always poetic, sometimes Meo's work engages with similes, but most often, Meo's work transposes what is physically literal into a kind of visual poetry. Whereas my work is always about metaphorical referencing, mixed with actual quotation, my work moves beyond Meo's purest formalism to embrace conceptual possibilities illuminating landscape and ecology's history.
The As Is collages and assemblages are related to a body of work I initiated in 2011. I began the Landscape Vernacular collage series with the realization that I had accrued a collection of dictionaries spanning two centuries, and I wondered, over a decade ago, if I could locate the precise dictionary volumes to document the Western World removing "humans" from the definition of "nature." Since then, I have diligently expanded my dictionary collection to pursue the wanted illustrations. Just a few months before coming to Rome, I collected two dictionaries demonstrating the "removal." I located the evidence I sought during my July artist residency at Weir Farm (Wilton, CT) and obtained the needed final dictionary edition during my Rome residency at the Fondazione Salvatore Meo. As Is is as much about realizing my decade-long aspirations as it is about exploring shared aesthetics. Concomitant to the As Is exhibition, the Landscape Vernacular exhibition presents the parent series at Anna Maria College (Paxton, MA). Together, from both sides of the Atlantic, As Is and Landscape Vernacular shed light on discarded things and Western Culture.
For the As Is series, I worked with the collection of definitions and various quotes about 'nature,' and I limited my materials to Roman ephemera and objets trouvés. Among the materials I worked with are those I found and purchased while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design's European Honors Program in Rome between 1984 and 1985, along with newly acquired materials I purchased from antique bookshops and Porta Portese vendors in December of 2023. I also amassed and worked with materials found on the streets of Rome—most of which were obtained at Porta Portese during the clean-up hours this past December. I also culled discarded materials from Salvatore Meo's studio to augment the As Is assemblages and collages. Finally, I recommended works of Meo's to include in As Is to provide viewers with live comparisons between our respective approaches to composite creation.
As Is presents collages that rely upon materials for their suggestive resemblance to something else in which blank, water-stained, and 'bookworm-eaten' paper becomes an atmospheric sky or landscape setting. The imagery of As Is also raises questions about global conditions, "actions," and whether or not things, as they exist, should remain as is.
Todd Bartel
Rome, 2023