Eugenia Loli the Queen of Collage
Collage is an art form that displaces all that we think to be certain. It can be unsettling. Mystifying. In this case, entrancing. Eugenia Loli is a collage artist and illustrator based in California who found collage as a form of escape — her work a rabbit hole into that dystopian reality deep within the realms of our subconscious. Those meta-meta-meta-dreams we find ourselves desperately trying to recapture. Hyperspace. Surrealism. Making sense of the nonsensical. Hers is a psychedelic delirium from which you won't want to wake up.
"My mother's response: 'What's this? Remove this from the face of the earth, that's not art.'"
Eugenia Loli · On the most interesting response to her workEugenia Loli originated in the technology sector, but she left that impersonal world behind in order to build new, exciting worlds via her art. Science and art tend to occupy opposite ends of the spectrum. Yet Loli has traversed from one side to the other: once a programmer and later a technology blogger, she now makes waves in the art scene with her pop collages. Same level of disruption. Different levels of beauty.
Art came back to her life while she was slowly dying from a mysterious disease. Locked at home with nothing to do, she began video editing on the side. In 2011, she finally identified the problem — undiagnosed celiac disease — found her cure via the Paleo diet, and art flourished. "My brain kind of became re-programmed when I found my health. Collages kind of happened. Sometimes I feel that collage was a gift for eventually figuring out what was wrong with me for all these years."
Eugenia Loli Sci-fi and spirituality. Some fellow artists too.
"Dream would be to fly out to space and never come back to this forsaken planet."
Eugenia Loli · On her dream projectEugenia Loli Lesser copyright danger. I'm sorry for not being more romantic and pseudo-intellectual about it, but the truth is collagists mostly use vintage material because the danger of copyright infringement is smaller. Having said that, vintage images shot with Kodachrome film look far better than modern digital images. They have a painting quality to them. The few collagists who use modern digital camera images — their work looks like photomontage. Vintage collage is closer to painting, aesthetically.
As for the femme fatale themes: people like them. Plain surreal landscapes, or abstract imagery, just aren't liked as much online. My personal favourites are meta-psychedelic, landscape-y scenes — artists tend to prefer the sort of things I like: abstract, complex, strong atmosphere. But people at large prefer simpler ideas they can comprehend within one or two seconds of looking.
Eugenia Loli I work digitally because it doesn't make sense today to do paper collages. Digital collages that aren't using soft cuts, and that don't have their colours pushed in Photoshop, look exactly the same as paper collages on screen or when printed. Since most people prefer prints and products rather than original artworks, it makes no sense to work by hand. Commissions also always require digital, since deep changes are inevitable.
Eugenia Loli In the beginning, I was heavy-handed with politics. I don't do that anymore; people don't like that type of art. They prefer easygoing art with only hints of important meanings. So I now do more decorative collages — but with hints of meaning about society and, lately, spiritual things. I'd say 75% of my collages have meaning. The rest are just decoration.
Eugenia Loli Surreal collage can give you some unique ideas about film. Unfortunately, to realise these in a film — rather than a static image — would be very expensive. Except for some composition and colour, filmmaking and collage haven't had a big intersection in my life.
Always keep your links. Loli's two favourite corners of the web say everything about her inner world: dmt-nexus.me · highexistence.com
