Jim Jarmusch cannot stop clinging. The famous independent filmmaker, known for films such as the winner of Cannes Grand Prix “Broken Flowers” and “Stranger Than Paradise”, has pulled in the form of art for decades, amassing hundreds of works.
The creation of collages is almost a constraint, a means for Jarmusch to escape from the world and to nestle self-reflection. He travels through the newspapers for the faces, tears them with his hands and climbs them on sparse and solid backgrounds. Jarmusch never imagined that anyone would see the works, but in 2021 he made his world of art in art with an exhibition, “Some Collages”, at James Fuentes Gallery in New York. This show coincided with a Book of the same namePosted by Anthology.
Since then, Jarmusch has entered the world of art further. His SQürl group, a collaboration with its producer and composer Carter Logan, created A new original partition for a quartet restored by the experimental short films by Man Ray, released “Music for Man Ray” last May. In November, Jarmusch added a curator to his list of multihyphenate talents: to celebrate The 100th anniversary of surrealism, he selected 34 images from the Grand Palais collection to highlight Paris photoOne of the most renowned photography art fairs in the world.
And, of course, Jarmusch continued to collage. In recent years, his collages have taken a darker tone – figuratively and literally, because he will now affix his delicate compositions on black paper instead of a warm barest – and he sent them to art fairs in France, Hong Kong and Los Angeles. Now he presents his second official exhibition, “Some additional collages“, Which opens on March 29 to James Fuentes gallery in Los Angeles with a book signature. We have caught up with Jarmusch to ask him questions about his collage process, his surrealism and his future as an artist.
The following questions and answers have been modified for more clarity.
You have organized a show and now you have had two art exhibitions. Do you feel like you are now officially in the art world?
I go through different worlds. I grew up in rock'n'roll clubs, I went through hip-hop worlds and I obviously crossed the world of cinema. I have had many friends who have been artists since I was young, so I am in a way in this world without being part of it.
Collage of newspaper without title by Jim Jarmusch, 2023
(All the images graceful of the artist and James Fuentes, Los Angeles and New York)
What encouraged you to make another collage exhibition?
My first book was “some collages”, which I was able to design with Arielle de Saint Phalle and the people of anthology, who published it. I did not expect to have a book or a show, but Arielle de Saint Phalle encouraged me during the pandemic. I have been doing these minimal collage of newspaper for several years now, and I have done it mainly for a kind of lonely escape, a form of automatic writing, but with visual reappearance things. I wanted a new show and I hope a new little book. The previous show focused on the re -evolution of things and replacements, mainly heads. The new ones that I have been manufactured for about a year are a little darker and involve the withdrawal with the black left. They are sort of a different feeling. But I don't analyze them. They are what they are. I also have some lithographs in the show.
Why did they become darker? Are you affected by the state of the world?
I'm sure it has an effect, but they are quite intuitively created. I don't like thinking about it when I do them. They come out of somewhere that is not analyzed. When I opened my first show, if the collages seemed openly political or proselytist in one way or another, I removed them. I tried not to be too easy on anything,
Why are all faces deleted?
I am interested in the juxtapositions which are not obvious. I worked on a film on William Burroughs many years ago, in the late 1970s, by Howard Brookner, entitled “Burroughs”. We spent a lot of time, more than a year or more, with Burroughs, and I used to sit with him when he worked on his albums, which were newspaper cuts, magazines and different sources. He would find these juxtapositions unexpected. It was a persistent inspiration.
I have always loved surrealism. I love the disturbance of logic. I love masks, and when I changed my head, it was like playing with masks too. But now, by removing (heads), they seem stronger. I like my new show more than my previous one, but I don't look at everything I do. For example, once my films are finished, I reached a paid audience and (are) distributed, I never watch them again.
Collage of newspaper without title by Jim Jarmusch, 2023
(All the images graceful of the artist and James Fuentes, Los Angeles and New York.)
There is only one collage in the show which contains faces. Could you talk more about this work?
It slipped into the show, and it may be a small door in the next series. I always use text from which the image comes. There are two faces, I think they are a kind of billionaire, the EIA entrepreneurs. The text refers to it. I don't know what they want to say. I think Ee Cummings said you can understand the poem without knowing what it means. This is probably true of all my work.
You stop faces with your hands, or do you use a tool?
My little tool kit can hold in a case. He has tweezers, whatever the backgrounds I work with and cutting tools which are generally ball pens that are short of ink.
What materials do you use?
I love newspaper, because when I was very young, my parents gave me a microscope and the first thing I watched was the edge of a torn newspaper. It was a thread jungle. It was very striking and I always have the image in my head. The fragility of newspaper calls me as a tactile substance.
Where do you expect the newspapers?
Especially from the New York Times, but I take them from anywhere. For a while, I only made Chinese newspapers that I obtained from Chinatown. I like the idea that I overthrow the idea of information and that I do something else.
What attracts you to this minimalist and highly edited approach?
I love the idea of taking things in other places and doing something else, that is why I like sampling and hip-hop or certain poetry schools that involve game structures. I always liked these distance and the replacements that I find in many artists that I like, like Bruce Conner, Richard Prince, Ray Johnson, John Baldessari and David Wojnarowicz.
Collage of newspaper without title by Jim Jarmusch, 2023
(All the images graceful of the artist and James Fuentes, Los Angeles and New York)
I saw that one of the lithographs uses “Les Demoiselles d'Avignon” by Picasso. Could you talk about it?
Many of my collages refer to art. There is a reference Frank Stella in my book and a number of Warhol references. I use art images, then damages them essentially. I am not a big fan of Picasso – I respect him, but he is a little too oriented for me as an artist – but it is one of his most beautiful paintings.
I wanted to make larger images from small collages of newspaper. At La, the small originals are part of the show, then you can see the lithographs, which are enlargements. Maurice (Sanchez of Derriere l'Etoile Studios) makes it a very special technique. They recreate the collages, then repair them on black backgrounds in a similar way to the way I create. Maurice creates Lithos at Long Island City for everyone. Each artist you heard about goes to him.
All the newspapers (collages) are original, and they are very delicate, very small. There are no multiples of none of them. I like the idea of making some greater that could be reproduced.
Are there surrealists or dadaists who really inspire you in particular?
Regarding collage, Max Ernst is probably my favorite. There was recently a show at the Pompidou Center, a truly exhaustive retrospective of surrealism. The very first Max Ernst collages were removed from the catalogs, and there was a whole wall. It creates a dream world. You disrupt the perceived logic of things in a very minimal way. I love rehearsal and unexpected connections.
Make the themes of your collages Reocur in your poetry, music or movies?
I don't really think of themes, honestly. When I write a script, I don't start with history. I start with characters and actors. I am starting to collect details – small pieces of dialogue, small ideas, places – and I bring them together for a long time, sometimes for years. Then I write the scripts very quickly. I do the same with music, because I am not a musician and a trained structure is not my strength. Sometimes I'm going to lie down, for example, a sort of psychedelic guitar track, then I will put a second track without listening first. Then I see what they become. When is the structure somehow aligned? When does it leave? It seems that everything I do has a similar thing, and the collages are only the most small illustration of my procedure.
What is the plan for new collages?
I would like to make a new book. The only thing I would change (about my first book) is that I put too much collages.
Another thing you would like to share?
I am not hierarchical about things. I am a self -proclaimed dilettan. What is high art, what is the low art, all that means nothing for me. There is something about collages – they are very accessible. They can be primitive or sophisticated or they can be complicated or obscure. I love the form of collage because it is so universal. I made collages alongside children and we are all in the same boat.
