Cocoborpo is an acronymish word derived from an abbreviation of the phrase “collaborative collage book project,” of which there are five, with seven collaging colleagues in North America and Europe:
Lisa Chun, Gary Ortman, William Cody,
Musta Fior, Flore Kunst, Francine Martin,
and Rhed Fawell.
102 full color collaborative collages, laser printed on acid free 70 lb Accent Text, in five 36-page books, measuring 178 x 127 mm, pamphlet stitched, with letterpress printed jackets of Stonehenge paper in five colors, in a one-of-kind archival slipcase, wrapped with a letterpress printed cover, proofs of pages from the booklets, and a reproduction of fine art selected from World Famous Paintings, edited by Rockwell Kent.
Limited edition of 26 numbered copies.
Flore Kunst, La Rochelle, France
Musta Fior, La Rochelle, France
Each booklet includes 20 collages (with the exception of No. 4, which includes 22), collaboratively created through six exchanges of a package of ten 2-sided cards through the postal service, over the course of a year or two. The artists were invited to add or subtract from the collages, and return them in a suggested sequence, as if the cards would become pages in a book.
These collaborations included no verbal or written communication. The artists were forced to relinquish control with each exchange, and respond to whatever came back from the hands and mind of another artist. The books are evidence of conversations with image selection, placement, and technique.
Sans text, these books reveal the story of a creative process, and express ideas, emotions, and perspectives through the arrangement of cut and torn pieces of the printed ephemera we find in all corners of our lives. As collagists, we use printed (or not) found paper, and sometimes other media, to create subtly balanced compositions, expressing ourselves with apparent chaos. Or, perhaps, in the spirit of the Dadaists, we find beauty in the chaos resulting from random arrangements of the printed matter that clutters our world.
At long last, five years after the project began, all of the cards have become book pages, and together they create this collection of five independently orchestrated collaborative collage book projects. As a suite, unified by their common format and structure, housed in an archival slipcase, Les Cocobopros is one cohesive work of art, by eight artists who speak collage.
All 102 collages may be viewed under the Collaborations tab on misterkoppa.com