I loved the collage workshop. The challenge is in having to work with images that were already contextualized once and taking what interests you visually and re-contexualizing it. But the greatest part is when you manage to build an entirely different environment for the images to work in. Part of that success rides in the fact that in order to make varying characters appear as though they live together. The reason Ernst is so successful is because he makes his images appear as though they occupy the same space. He overlays and forces images to interact by determining what parts of the various images are interesting enough and vital enough to move the eye on the page believably.
I feel, often, when people make collages they get so engrossed in images or words that on their own are visually stimulating, but then forget that theses images do not stand on their own. There must be a background in which these objects exist. But this background does not have to be that which the pieces existed on before. It is through layering and manipulation that theses images are re-contextualized, or decontextualized entirely.
