Lacerated posters - Definition

Lacerated posters, a type of decollage in the context of surrealist analysis, are posters (the same phenomenon can be seen on billboards) in which one has been placed over another or others, and the top poster or posters have been ripped, revealing to a greater or lesser degree the poster or posters underneath.

Although Mark Kostabi claims that "Mimmo Rotella invented the technique of using torn posters to make art in the early 1950s"[1] (http://www.markkostabi.com/shout/nov00.htm), examples of the genre done without any surrealist or artistic intent predate this, as do Raymond Hains' lacerated posters (http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:GX54Fdk6Yp8J:www.cnac-gp.fr/Pompidou/Communication.nsf/docs/IDD24EC874C2404E1FC1256A76004F78C0/%24File/rayhainsang.pdf+%22lacerated+posters%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8).

Lacerated posters are closely related to Richard Genovese's practice of "excavations."