During my Digital Media studies at Deakin University (2017-2018), I taught myself how to use Adobe Photoshop through a series of digital collage experiments using Public Domain illustrations from the British Library. Through exploration of the British Library archives, I collected imagery relating to my Māori tīpuna (ancestors), creating works that reclaimed these historically ‘stolen’ taonga (treasures). My early experiments in the technique focused heavily on this perspective, combining illustrations with royalty-free watercolour backgrounds. On average, each finished artwork would combine 10-15 original illustrative elements together digitally in Photoshop to form the finished collage.
I then began exploring the technique more broadly, combining layers of illustrative elements with royalty-free photos, fonts and graphic design elements.
“Dream(e)scape (…through the open window).” [2017] © Kate Zarb (As Kea Meamea) 
“Dream(e)scape…through the lens.” [2017] © Kate Zarb (As Kea Meamea) 
“Albrecht’s Apple.” [2017] © Kate Zarb (As Kea Meamea) 
“The Dreams of Men.” [2017] © Kate Zarb (As Kea Meamea) 
“Apoxylypso: The apocryphal wino.” [2017] © Kate Zarb (As Kea Meamea) 
The work below – ‘Finis’ [2017] – was a culmination of these experiments, exploring concepts of life, death, and rebirth. This piece was 100+ layers of illustrations.
This concept is also shown in the piece ‘Coldness and Cruelty’ [2017] below:
This piece began to incorporate historical illustrations with royalty-free photos, as well as scans of my own source images. In the above image, I’ve incorporated the photo of a man from a ‘Missing’ poster from my time living in Bogotá, Colombia.
The final work in this series was completed as a cover for Melbourne band Party On My Darling’s debut EP ‘How Not To Love‘. It combined 250+ layers of royalty-free and Public Domain images and illustrations.
See my Instagram with all of my Kea Meamea work here.