Newspaper Collage (Joy)

A collage on a manilla envelope. The central image is of a vintage image of Black couple dancing, both wearing 1970s-style bell bottoms. This is set on bars of sheet music and framed by two collaged elements - green leaves in the lower left and a ribbon in the upper right

Ada Griffin
Newspaper Collage (Joy), 2021
Mixed media collage with newspaper, UPS labels, oil paint, and manilla envelope

“I cut the central image from a Sunday edition of The New York Times, a reprint of an archived negative marked with white paint for editing. The couple pictured, dancing in bell bottoms, is framed by bars of sheet music and centered on a manilla envelope. Two stickers that I created with UPS labels and oil paint hug the central composition. All the elements are held together with layers of ModPodge and everyday magic. I was drawn to the movement and rhythm and irrefutable Black joy of this couple and was moved to center them in my work. While composing this collage I thought about joy, resilience, and what it means to move freely. I created it as a gift for my partner (another multi-racial, living legacy of the African diaspora), and mailed it across the Atlantic Ocean to London.” - Ada Griffin

Ada Griffin is a multimedia artist from Pittsburgh, PA. Griffin’s work explores questions of identity, race, and history. She currently studies the History of Art at Yale University. She plans to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in May 2022.

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