In today’s social-media dominated age, we’ve all – at one point or another – made collages, but our definition and use is limited to using photo-editing apps to group two or more pictures together. However, Adam Hale, a British artist based in London, has an entirely different approach to making collages, where each collage tells a different story.
Adam originally studied graphic design and by his own admission “felt obliged to move away from traditional techniques and embrace new technology,” even though he has always enjoyed drawing and creating art by hand. Working at a digital company, Adam started making collages as a creative outlet to productively use his spare time. In early 2015, he created an Instagram account dedicated to his analogue collage artwork cleverly named ‘The Daily Splice’. The popularity of his thought-provoking collages can be gauged from the fact that in just a few months, Adam’s account has gained a massive 102K+ followers.
However, the most interesting facet of Adam’s endeavour is his source material. He uses newspapers and magazines left behind by fellow commuters on the London Tube to create a new collage every day. It’s not rare to spot famous artists like Sam Smith, Cara Delevingne and more is his art pieces. He states on his website that he feels, “an immediacy to the work in which current topics, trends and affairs are given new context, turning something disposable into something of permanence”. Well Londoners, next time you leave a magazine behind, you might actually be contributing to art!
One look at his Instagram feed and you might assume that he makes the collages digitally but that’s untrue–everything is done by hand. Adam sees the analogue format of his collages as a challenge and also a welcome change from his day job. He says, “It’s often very hard to ‘splice’ images together without the ability to flip or resize individual elements as you would on a computer, but I enjoy problem-solving and it feels great when something finally slots into place”.
When quizzed about why Adam chose collages as a way to channel his creativity, he replied:
“To me, collage is the place where contemporary illustration meets sculpture, but it’s my perfectionist tendencies that lead people to assume my work is created digitally. I like clean edges and seamless compositions which allow the viewer to focus solely on the narrative within the piece but it differs from the rough tear-and-paste style associated with collage.”
Adam’s unique style and beautiful collages have caught the eye of many in the global art circuit. Back in July this year, Adam’s artwork was featured on the official Instagram Blog. Three of his collages were presented at the ‘Brooklyn Vs. London 2015’ exhibition hosted by Something In The Attic at Carousel London.
Speaking on his future, Adam comments, “I’m yet to work directly with any brands however ‘The Daily Splice’ has only just taken off. I’m already working on larger one-off personal pieces and developing a process that will allow me to take commissions. I understand that taking commissions will require a different way of doing things – I’ll have to be able to plan ahead to a certain extent which rarely happens with my current process but I feel it’s the next step and I want to focus on my development as an artist.”
Whatever the future may hold, we at The Yellow Sparrow wish Adam all the luck and success in the world!
