Collage experimentation

I have begun to experiment with collage, the subject being politics. I have chosen to pursue a satirical route as opposed to a serious one. The subject of politics can be a contentious one and one that is often avoided because of its well known ability to divide people. Turning this on its head and making light of what is a serious subject is a good way to bring people together as they can laugh despite their differing opinions.

The situation in politics right now around the world is, in my opinion, so bad right now that it is laughable. With leaders like Donald Trump and Theresa May, the idea of satire suits my theme perfectly - the people themselves are easy to make a mockery out of.

My first experimentations with collage I think turned out quite successfully. I am particularly happy with the left piece, even though Boris Johnson isn't relevant to the protest the piece still has comedic value. 

For my collage idea I was inspired by this poster I found of a presidential campaign featuring two people, Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore. The poster is from the 1800's which I thought could represent the fact the world seems to be regressing instead of moving forward (the Republican party in the US are on the conservative side of politics, meaning they seem to look to the past instead of the future). As the protest was not about just one person but rather 2 I thought this could be perfect to include both Trump and May.

For this collage I really wanted to mock Trump and May, so while keeping the general idea of the campaign poster, I used a pigeon instead of the patriotic eagle, and a graffiti'd shop shutter instead of the grand curtain in the original. I also labelled May as 'Theresa the Appeaser', a nickname I'd heard at the protest, and labelled Trump as 'the Antichrist'.
I think the idea behind my collage went well but it feels quite busy as a whole. There are lots of clashing parts, making it hard to focus on one aspect. The pigeon blends into the grey shutter (could change to a seagull) and the names are scruffy. However if I were to recreate this piece it would be digitally anyway so I could tidy up the piece. It also may be too complicated for a screenprint, so I would have to convert to black and white.