Assemblage is the art of bringing together disparate objects to craft a composition. Originally begun by Pablo Picasso, it consists of a process including finding the original objects, crafting a new context for them, and fitting the objects into that context. Though assemblage is often a component of collage, it is also key to understanding the construction of many an artistic and literary argument. Crafting a new context for existing pieces allows the new piece to be informed by both their new surroundings and the background context which already exists. Thus, looking at the Rauschenberg sculpture, our background context with bikes makes their relationship to the new context (vertically oriented) all the more intriguing. Indeed, one might even consider assemblage to be the art of juxtaposing contexts: creation out of consumption and the transformation of utilitarian found objects into objects of art.

Comment on this page