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Collage is a habit I developed out of frustration. For artists who work impulsively, the challenge is capturing thoughts before they're fleeting. By eliminating time spent rendering, everything becomes composition - comparisons and relationships. I tend to focus on history, but the truth's that my art is romanticism. A bit ridiculous maybe, but part of this is avoiding the active process of 'creating' or aiming for originality. If you're receptive to emotions (e.g. of a photographer or subject) the way you converse with images allows them to arrange themselves. Why you've made certain associations can speak to things you fear or long for - not unlike tarot or trying to make sense of dreams.
During the pandemic, 'empire' became an omnipresent theme. In life and television: aristocracy and revolt, another Crimean war, elections, and coronation. All of this, interwoven with discussion of museums and the ownership of objects. Anxiety in the Age of Empire is in the format of paneled, religious iconography. On one side a troubled king - opposing, the artist in museum security uniform. Their great-grandfather (a cavalry captain) standing over shoulder. The question I'd like to provoke is what, excluding time, distinguishes these officers? In both the British Museum and Seattle Art Museum sit identical, moulded busts of Apollo (alluded to in the rightmost panel). Saber or radio on hip, is it in protection of the same interests?
Anxiety in the Age of Empire
Digital collage on metal, 27" x 14" (2017, 23)
Diptych: Left panel featured in Lynn Hanson Gallery (ICON Show) prior to Pandemic, Jeopardy Magazine (#56) during Pandemic - shown with right panel in SAM 2023 Staff Show (inaugural Post-Pandemic exhibition). Special materials used with permission of Seattle Art Museum, courtesy of Digital Media Department.
1710-50, Paul Heermann (after: Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini)
ABOUT THE ARTIST
T. Lilja is a mixed media artist and part of Seattle Art Museum's Equity Advisory Committee. They've shown and published in a variety of space and medium, including a one-time "Time Travel Museum" in Seattle's Central District (curated by Hollow Earth Radio). 'Time' as a method of connecting disparate themes and relating to family stories of immigration and historical conflict. Hip hop, another passion, for its power of association and ethos of making art with what you have.
Artist website: https://tlilja.blog/
Words and collage art by T. Lilja. Portraits by Hilary Northcraft.
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