Tower of Babel Collage
I drew out the framework of where I wanted things to be. Then I began cutting. I started with the old, yellowed paper at the bottom, which I knew— the moment I saw it discarded on the street—would be the “sand” of the collage. Then pictures of skies for the sky (the cool clouds near the top are from Hubble). The sky was the easy part, though the moon took a while to find.
I wanted the languages I found to really be found. The collage includes 20 languages: Amharic, Arabic, Celtic, Chinese, Cuneiform (some of which I sketched on top of the collage), English, French, Georgian, Greek, ancient Hebrew, modern Hebrew, Hieroglyphics (my pride & joy), Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Persian (gifted by a friend for the task), Russian, Sanskrit, Spanish, and what I am 95% sure is Thai (from a post office flyer that clearly wasn’t for me).
There are a variety of flags and symbols— such as the Olympic symbol and the Mayan sun and moon gods, the Hebrew name of god at the top of the tower, as well as strategically placed English phrases such as: “pillars of creation,” “mysteries of the universe,” and “he loved the people.”
I cut the palm trees out of images of plants and wood. The camels on both sides are actually one picture: The right side is the water reflection of the left, reminiscent of a mirage. The silver windows are from upcycled cigarette packaging, and the gold windows are from confiscated gold paper from a certain educational facility. The icings on the cake are the sun I painted myself – cut out of another painting –and the REAL sand.
The Compass of Maps Collage
A collection of maps creates a compass: It is a unique, handmade collage inspired by the Bünting cloverleaf map with Jerusalem at the center of the world, yet it is crafted in the shape of a compass rose. It was created from painstakingly cutting out vintage maps and images of water, the pieces placed together like a mosaic. The border was then painted like a textured, copper bezel; the points of the wind rose, embellished with a gold metallic pen, and the arabesque swirls of a calligraphy pen.
Shoshana Sarah 