In the Group 42 gallery, the themes and images introduced in the first half of the cycle feel rich and layered.
Daniel’s “Chaos intérieur” collage, with his father’s 19-year-old face and 93-year-old hands, sets a tone of personal history and vulnerability. Laura writes that adding to it was “a therapeutic experience,” and she responds to Daniel’s “chaos intérieur” by bringing in her own family’s estranged relationship. She says her additions “express an estranged relationship being experienced by one of my loved ones right now.” Daniel, in turn, sees “a dialogue of wounded souls” between Jan’s and Laura’s sections. Even without seeing the collage in person, we can imagine that central gaze intensifying as each new layer adds emotional weight.
Alongside this, Fred’s Native American theme moves steadily through the group. Daniel researches Nokota horses, elk, and eagles and builds a horse coat from tiny fragments, “gradually” constructing form from texture. Laura’s description of Fred’s collage as “a wonderful tribute to Native American culture,” “truly a journey through history and beyond into contemporary issues,” suggests that her own inks, paints, and “thin collage rays” are meant to connect figures rather than decorate them. These two strands—Daniel’s intimate family story and Fred’s broad historical theme—both invite careful, respectful handling.
Jan and Laura also stretch the project formally. Jan weaves cyanotypes and old photograms into an “in-camera collage” that honors Haudenosaunee weaving traditions along the Chemung River. Laura’s starter collage, with its unexpected whale, moves from land-based Three Sisters agriculture into a hybrid land–sea legend. Daniel calls this range of approaches an adventure designed to help him “step outside my comfort zone, learn to let go, and, above all, appreciate the work of others.”
Halfway around the circle, Group 42 seems to be learning how to hold both inner and outer histories—personal, political, and cultural—in the same evolving images.
Group 42
Booyakatopia (Netherlands), Daniel Guy (Canada), Jan Kather (New York), Fred H Athey (California), Laura Lubecki (Pennsylvania)