A consummate traveler, Carl David Ruttan makes collages with graphic ephemera he finds along the way: Chinese cigarette cartons, Indian candy wrappers, torn bits of music posters from the street. Working in a rented room in Berlin, a youth hostel in Switzerland, on the beach in India, or his apartment in Montreal, Ruttan spreads out the fragments and brings the bits and pieces together in composition. When done, he slides the small 3.5”x2.5” collages into a plastic sleeve. Once home, Ruttan scans them, enlarges the image, and makes a print in edition of three. The final image presents a seamless photographic print that is akin to photomontage.
This catalogue presents the work exhibited at Galerie Maison Kasini in Montreal, January 6-23, 2010. The exhibition explored Ruttan’s collage practice and the relationship between the small collages and large prints of them. The catalogue contains an essay by Ric Kasini Kadour, an interview with the artist, and ten images.