Christer Themtander (b.1943), Stockholm Sweden
Christer Themptander is the grand old man of Swedish collage. For more than 40 years he has been attacking the establishment with humour and playfulness. He has resisted the sirens’ call of the computer and is still using scissors and scalpel – but he does use copying machines of different kinds to resize and manipulate his source images. He says he is stuck in the material world, he must be able to touch and feel his material in order to be creative.

In the late 60s Christer started to study to be an art director. After a year or so he got fed up with school and with advertisement and began to study sociology, pedagogy and anthropology. At this time he also started making collages. “The collage method suits me well. It is a means to define myself in the world. I had these photos and pictures lying around and then I played around with them until a new and truer image of the world emerged.”

In his studio he has the scribbled down on a pun on an piece of paper which sums up his approach to making picures: “Unforseen before seen”. His collages are tools we can use for seeing what we’ve seen before, but now in a new way, with critical eyes. “Regarding something  as natural makes you consider it immutable.” Jesper Weithz. For Christer the working process is rewarding in itself; the joy of not knowing where one is heading. “If you surprise yourself you also surprise others!”