Collage 1973

Editor: Here we have Jan Dibbets’ “Collage” from 1973. It combines photography and collage techniques to create these geometric landscapes, almost like aerial views. The way the artist manipulated the materials really stands out to me. What are your thoughts? Curator: Well, look at the artificiality implied by its means of production. What is landscape but an active manipulation? The collage form here highlights that the “natural” is always already mediated, shaped, worked over. Notice how Dibbets uses the photographic medium to both capture and dissect the landscape, turning it into a commodity, an image to be consumed and rearranged. Does the method employed reflect the themes explored in any way? Editor: I see what you mean. The repetition and manipulation definitely draw attention to the constructed nature of the image, and maybe of nature itself? So it’s about how the photograph alters the landscape, more than just showing it? Curator: Precisely. Consider the labor involved in producing and maintaining landscapes - think of parks, gardens, golf courses. Now, what does this manipulation through collage add to that context of labor and materiality? Editor: It layers another level of artifice, almost obscuring any "natural" reading. By emphasizing process, is Dibbets making a point about consumption? We consume images of landscapes as much as, if not more than, the landscapes themselves? Curator: Yes! It's all about the circulation and commodification of nature as an image. We must ask ourselves: whose vision, whose labor, whose resources are consumed to produce these images, these landscapes, and ultimately, these meanings? Editor: That's fascinating, it makes me rethink what I see. I hadn't considered how the collage form itself connects to those ideas of labor and commodification. Curator: Right? We have to see beyond the pretty picture and interrogate its means of production. Every art form is a product. Editor: Absolutely, that materialist approach really changed how I look at this piece. Thanks!