Arts Night Out/ "Rag and Bone" by Emily Ward

Start: Feb. 14, 2014, 10 p.m.

End: Feb. 15, 2014, 1 a.m.

A rag and bone man refers to someone from the Middle Ages who collected unwanted household items (rags, bones, metals, etc.) and sold them to merchants.

In a way I see myself as a rag and bone (wo)man while taking it a step further. I love collecting. Whether it be old magazines, photographs, frames, bones, birdcages, fans or rusty trinkets forgotten in a cigar box. But unlike a rag and bone man, I repurpose these items as visually interesting, mixed-media collages.

I love giving these long abandoned items a new purpose in a new home. Otherwise, they would still be collecting dust in someone’s attic or even end up in the trash, hidden from the public eye.

With how quickly technology “out does” itself everyday with crazy-techno-machine-made-thingamabobs, it’s easy to forget when people took time to make things by hand with detail and care, over machine. I want people to enjoy these “relics of nostalgia” in ways they may not have necessarily thought of themselves, through subjects that interest me like exploring themes of dreams and death, all while remaining playful.

With Joseph Cornell and Terry Gilliam as major influences, I find there really are no limits (in terms of themes, concepts, subjects) when working with collage as a medium.

Thank you and enjoy!

Emily Ward