Sack-o-sauce 1948

Eduardo Paolozzi put together this collage, called Sack-o-sauce, from printed ephemera, its hard to say exactly when. What really grabs me are these solid blocks of colour that act like a stage for all this craziness to happen on. The materials in the collage, probably cut with scissors, have a slight roughness that softens the bright colour palette, making it feel more like a sidewalk than a billboard. The contrast between the hand-cut shapes and the slick adverts gives the whole thing a feeling of depth, like you could reach in and grab the… Oscar Mayer wieners? The way this sits in the composition is so satisfying. Paolozzi’s collages share a playful energy with artists like Hannah Hoch, though his approach is more like a comic book. Art is never made in a vacuum, and I see this piece as part of a long, ongoing conversation about how we see and experience the world around us.