Once upon a time, the medium of collage was a lifeforce of radical artistic expression. From the cubists, dadaists and surrealists to the constructivists and pioneers of pop art, artists harnessed the cut-and-paste appropriation of mass media, in response to kaleidoscopic changes in 20th-century culture. Reincarnated in the anarchic age of punk, collage once again gained traction for its DIY, lowbrow aesthetic and bargain cost of production, a trend that was later revived by the Xerox zine queens of the 90s riot grrrl scene. Fast-forward to today, and you might be surprised to know that the contemporary vanguard of collage is as experimental as ever. But its exposure is embarrassingly slim. While Tumblr offers a hotbed of kitsch collage dreams, platforms dedicated to the medium are few and far between. Likewise, Instagram may have helped to catapult the careers of a handful of frontline collagists – including fashion’s favourite iconoclasts Kalen Hollomon and Doug Abraham – but the reality is that contemporary collage remains wildly underrated. Cue LIVE WILD, the online collective of female artists and photographers ready to re-stick collage at the centre on the cultural map.

“We want to be a voice from the people to the people, about the people. We want to produce work with layers that speaks about social and cultural issues, and triggers discussion” – Camille Lévêque

Hailing from Armenia, Canada, France, Belgium and the USA (by way of Russia, Ukraine, Belgium, France and Lebanon), LIVE WILD have set their goals high. “We want to rejuvenate collage’s image and create a platform where artists from different geographical, social and political backgrounds can produce (pieces of) work that communicate smoothly with each other,” says Camille Lévêque, who founded the collective in 2014. Its seven members, aged between 22 and 34, might come from very different places, but they share a guiding interest in dada, surrealism and the much more recent vaporwave movement. “It was a musical micro-genre that emerged in internet communities and came with a super-kitsch visual identity, mixing various types of imagery like Roman sculptures with dolphins and Windows screensavers.” But far from appearing like “the work of a stoner”, Lévêque vows that vaporwave was visually important for its unexpected juxtapositions where “Ancient Greek codes can coexist with tech aesthetics. So we’re back to collage again!” she says, “Collages that create encounters between digital and analogue, natural and manmade, or cultures from around the globe.”