‘Colografia’ – Cuban for Collography
The term ‘Collography’ is derived from the Greek word ‘collo’ meaning glue, and the English word ‘graph’ meaning the activity of drawing. This is a process where materials are added to a rigid background such as wood or cardboard to create a relief, a process similar to that of collage. Like collage, the materials that could be used to build up a relief plate could be anything from the mundane by intricately carving and shaping materials such as glass, wood, plastics to fabric. The completed relief design is then inked and printed on to paper. To achieve a range of tones in a print one has to think about textured materials that will hold the ink for printing.
No two prints are identical; they are all in their own right unique and original prints. The artist may use the same plate again but to get the same effect as the previous print with the inks and how they appear is almost practically impossible.
The relief plate created by the collage of delicately carved materials upon a rigid background is ephemeral. The plate only has a small limited number of prints it is able to make before they break; if they don’t break, they are broken by the creator to increase the value of the works.
The paper, also made by the artist, is hand made using Banana Leaves. The only time when the artist is mechanically assisted is when the pulp of the wet Banana Leaves pass through a press to flatten the leaves on to the inked relief plate to create the final image.
