MPRSS_HRNT_01
© 2010 Craig Ashby
Collage.
7″ x 7″

So here is a series of collages I did in the latter half of 2010 after the PR-RAW series. It is entitled MPRSS_HRNT and is my take on the Major Arcana Empress card of the Tarot.

Basically it’s more of the same addiction to the African aesthetic which has apparently scarred me. I see these pieces as recontextualizations of modern jewelry and changes in ideas of beauty.

Rather than tattoo yourself, what if you wore a mask that appropriated ancient paper magazine imagery? What if you wore a diamond ring as a monocle? What if the Andrews Sisters became relevant in an era when women wore ancient magazines as hairnets?

I know, I know. But at the time I was reading Manly P. Hall and all that Isis worship and the Tarot left quite an impression. So this is what you get. Africa meet Crowley and Blavatsky. These things come in flashes. I can see them clearly and then whoosh, time to execute.

This prototype was the first. None failed in the sense that all are present and none were edited out. All these are hand cut. They are not single layer collages. The jewelry and the hairnet sit on top the bottom layers.

The hairnet layer itself is the American Idol logo from a god awful Vogue spread featuring Amber Valetta and Ryan Seacrest. Glad I could take something devoid of aesthetic value and make pretty with it.