17561 (_When I am in magic sleep …_) 1932

John Elsas made this paper collage, 17561 (_When I am in magic sleep …_), at an unknown date. It’s got this dreamy quality, a figure pieced together from what looks like scraps of patterned paper. I can almost feel him carefully cutting and arranging, letting the materials guide the way. The colors and textures are playful but muted. The floral patterns and checks give the figure a kind of patchwork identity. The head is a simple shape, very flat, but the body, with its mix of different patterns, has more dimension. The arm is doing something – gesturing, holding, maybe conducting an orchestra? It's these odd details that draw you in. It reminds me of some of Hannah Höch’s Dada collages, where she's piecing together a new kind of human from the fragments of the world around her. Ultimately, it's a tender, weird little world, full of possibilities.