Cohort 52 is a platform for emerging voices from the Applied Art & Design program at Sierra College in Northern California. Cohort 52 is facilitated by Assistant Professor Vincent Pacheco.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hello, my name is Rebekah Heninger, and I am a graphic designer and traditional artist who loves to use her work to point out the issues that often get “swept under the rug,” by society. I like pointing out the depression, the anxiety, the sexual assault, that society makes seem like should just be kept quiet. If we do not create talk about the pertinent conflicts in our society, they will never be resolved.
How much experience do you have with collage?
Prior to taking a Publication Design class, I had really only done collages in photoshop by combining images and using masking tools to create the look I wanted. After my Publication Design class, I found a new love for traditionally making paper collages and scanning them digitally into Photoshop.
Collage artists tend to be picky when it comes to their source material. Can you talk about your approach for selecting your images and/or publications?
For my 15 collages I used mainly a traditional approach. I took pieces from various art magazines, and found images that expressed the same meaning. For some pieces I even added three dimensional characteristics such as a clay hand on top of my piece on sexual assault or a three dimensional cage around painted people to resemble to feeling of mental illness. In these pieces I also made certain to use very colorful images. In our lives, I think we tend to falsely view “colorful” things as being cheerful, but I see the color more as a mask to the darkness underneath. To me I wanted to express the metaphor that even amidst a seemingly “happy” world mental illness still affects about 43.8 million adults according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Were there any large themes you intended to explore or unpack before you began with this series of work? Did you stay on theme, or did things change as you began physically cutting and pasting images?
I originally knew that I wanted to continue with a more realistic way of life or some could argue a despondent feeling, but before I started the collage work, I didn’t know whose voices needed to be heard. As I cut out the images I try to let the paper guide me to who needs to be seen.
How did your background and life experiences inform your collages?
As someone who grew up a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but who is no longer apart of that environment, I feel like I have unique religious trauma that guided these topics. I grew up being told to just smile and put everyone else’s needs above your own. I was told to love the sinner, hate the sin, but if that person actually does sin then you shouldn’t be friends with them. To me I truly felt like the girl on the final page of my zine, where she is in a very colorful environment but only truly feels dark on the inside. All these condescending lies I was told each week at church made me want to give voice to others in a similar situation, where they maybe feel they cannot be totally honest.
What was your environment and set-up like when making the work? Did you listen to music? Did you work in isolation, or were you surrounded by distraction? Do you think this influenced the work you made?
When I work on collages, I personally work best by myself with my thoughts and music. I think music is a really powerful connection with our emotions and our past selves. While working on these collages I personally listened to a lot of Phoebe Bridgers, Macy Ayres, and Boygenius. A lot of these artists write music about really tough situations and feelings. I personally aspire to make work myself that makes people a little uncomfortable so that they make the necessary changes in their lives to give space for these folks who don’t totally fit that normal mold.
Scissors or X-Acto?
I personally use an approach of using both. The bigger the piece I am cutting out I normally start out with scissors and then clean it up with an X-Acto knife. That way I am making sure to be time efficient but still create polished work.
Was there anything unexpected that emerged while creating your work? Any new epiphanies?
One of the first pieces I made was one that depicted a female with little clothing on, where I ripped a blue piece of paper covering her eyes, and a clay hand much bigger than her, on her body. This piece was used to symbolize people using their power over someone to sexually assault them. As I made more collages I realized I didn’t want to focus on just those who have been sexually assaulted but also those who deal with other kinds of issues such as mental illness, homophobia, discrimination, etc.
Looking at your work again, has your understanding of your collages changed over time? Has any hidden meaning emerged?
At the start of my collage journey, I did not realize how much I would resonate with my work. I guess with hindsight bias it makes sense that my work would describe my feelings, but in an effort to try and spread awareness to other people’s issues I ended up being able to give my own past a way to be seen as well.
Many artists are using the pandemic as a moment to pause and reflect. Do you think Covid-19 informed your work in any way?
At the start of my collage journey, I did not realize how much I would resonate with my work. I guess with hindsight bias it makes sense that my work would describe my feelings, but in an effort to try and spread awareness to other people’s issues I ended up being able to give my own past a way to be seen as well.
