Ecolage: The Fusion of Art and Ecology with Discards

 Distinguished cultural anthropologists, in her classic book Purity and Culture, defined dirt as “matter out of place.”  Ecolage, adopting the style of assemblage or bricolage, puts matter and objects discarded by humans back into place—into artistic forms via an ecological consciousness.  It allows a conscious recognition of the transformation of junk into aesthetic form—and aesthetic context.  The style of ecolage will be illustrated in two ways:  with the artist’s own oeuvre at a micro level and a variety of examples from around the world of ecolage at a macro level.