PHYSICALLY DISTANT SOCIALLY CLOSER COLLAGE WORK
Leila Antakly’s 3D Mixed Media Collages
Besides spending much time needed to revamp the site, and focus on finding inspiring interviews to work on during this quarantine period, I finally had the time to start one of my favorite activities, creating collages out of mixed media. In the series of five I made over the past two months, I used photography, old letters, newspapers, magazine cut outs, fashion catalogs, varnish and all kinds of glue. Some people enjoy puzzles, I enjoy making collages. I ran out of supplies after one month and the art shops were closed until a few days ago. Madrid only managed to get to phase 1 yesterday. Finally able to buy varnish and other little art objects I started creating 3d pop up effects on the collages and they have decided to take on a new life.
I posted a couple on Instagram and got such an amazing response, we decided to auction one, and sent the proceeds to a charity in Thailand to support the Covid situation there. Now i’ve been receiving commissions and I am so grateful to my friends who showed their support by encouraging me to keep at it. These take hours to do, and I’ve gone through at least 200 recycled magazines. I am grateful to these collages for they kept me focused, and sane during very tough moments. Who knows one day I might look back on these times and miss having endless hours ( sometimes up all night) listening to music expressing myself creatively on paper with nothing else to do!
Dani our super lovely editor, asked me a few questions so we thought it would make it more interesting to share them here thanks Dani!
Daniela: What inspired you with this series of collages?
Leila : Pretty much everything, its been a very emotional rollercoaster, dealing with the uncertainty so I kept my focus on visuals that caught my attention, I had a few folders where I would save the cut outs and photographs in. Some times I structured the collages by colors, or themes, ( one is fully dedicated to travel). The pink one is the one I decided to keep for myself cause I did a lot of testing on this one, including painting.
Also since a kid, I’ve always loved vinyl album covers, specially those of the Rolling Stones and The Beatles, like Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club. Am in love with the tiny intricacies and details in that art work!
A few were commissions, how did you decide in which direction to go with those?
Leila: Yes two were commission, and one is for my mother. For the commissioned ones, I sent a series of images and colours to my friends got their feedback and went from there.
Leila: In all my interviews I ask how the creative has handled the pandemic and how things are going to change moving forward. It seems that everyone agrees, the reset button was strongly needed to get back in tune with ones self. I think we are overly saturated of everything and hopefully people will start connecting with themselves and their communities. I know I am changing many habits, I don’t crave the same things I used to. As someone who’d like to think I was always somewhat environmental friendly I definitely recognize my own need to do more from my part. As someone who’s NEVER liked talking on the phone much, I recently called a close friend to wish him a happy birthday and we spent one hour properly catching up, realizing that never before have I felt closer to my close friends than now. As he so well said -
“ Physically distant-socially closer than ever!”
Some thoughts you had while making these collages Leila?
Leila: Strange to be the one answering the questions by the way Dani, :) I by no means, want anyone to think I am considering these collages “ art” or that I have “ artistic abilities” this was purely an activity that I so happened to put in a lot of time into the past few months. Once i’d watched everything on netflix and hbo, and baked enough pies to feed an army I felt I wanted to explore my creative side. Trying to connect with people on house party and zoom became annoying after the initial fun wore off. On a serious note, I thought a lot about my future, I’ve been living by the day for so long, that I finally came to terms with knowing where I want to be is a good thing. I guess that’s part of maturity. Letting go of my past troubles that’s stayed with me (specially when all the new moon and mercury on retrograde stuff was going on). Thinking a lot about my family, missing my sisters, trying not to stress out about my father being alone in Beirut.
Then of course, the music I was listening to greatly affected my thoughts, I mostly played Spotify, lots of 80’s and 90’s. The Cure and Sade, who’s voice I could never tire of. Many songs brought me many memories with friends, and really having a good old think about friendships and relationships and using this time to make some big changes!
Thanks Dani, now lets interview real artists!
FT Coronavirus Business Update newsletter
The coronavirus pandemic has sent tremors through the global economy. To help you navigate the uncertainty the Financial Times have created a special newsletter. Sign up to the Coronavirus Business Update (free to read) for a level-headed perspective on how rapidly evolving events are affecting the markets, global business and our daily lives
