Benjamin Frey

In the beginning, mine is the art of collecting. The collages I create are made from papers handmade around the world, lost letters, century old book pages, manuscripts, forgotten images from old auction catalogs and great works from timeless asters of music, art and literature. Each component in a single collage has its own history, which I cannot know, that it has carried through the ages, imparting countless meanings of worldly and personal significance to those who encounter it. By collecting the many objects and images together, I am trying to create a visual poetry that will inspire memories and evoke emotions in the people who view my work. The images transform when they breathe together in a new context, they draw new life from the rhymes created between what you see and what you imagine. I want the life and experiences that you bring to my work as the viewer to blend with emotions, ideas and histories of the components themselves. The experience you have is the art.