About Zachary
Baltimore City
I've turned to exploring the ways of making that are found in lower Alabama's Mardi Gras float making tradition. The idea of a float, the carnivalesque, and the dynamics of parade all resonate with me as I watch the political circus in our country. In recent works and installations I've found myself connecting those elements of the carnival to their counterparts in our Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches in government. Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying.
Jump to a project:
Pissed
"Pissed" is an interactive installation that is activated by the presence of the spectator once they decide to participate. The concept of the kinetic and how it allows the viewer to occupy the form is explored through sensor activated mechanisms. Paintings in the installation explore the intoxicating effects of the carnival through inclusive act of wearing a mask to obscure one's identity.
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https://youtu.be/qfqY87_v5foInstallation of Pissed at the Lazarus Center. Baltimore, MD 2018
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PissedOverhead.JPGInstallation view of "Pissed" from overhead.
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revisedpissed.jpgInstallation view of the left side of "Pissed".
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MikePenceHead.JPGDetail of the head of Mike Pence from "Pissed" Installation.
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Triggeredfeet.JPGDetail of the feet as the knees shake
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Triggered Pissed Head.JPGDetail of the head of "Pissed" when the lighting is changed by the sensor in the next stall.
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DetailofHand.JPGDetail of the off hand.
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Rally.JPGOne of 2 paintings that accompany the installation. Acrylic on Ink Jet Print.
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RoyatthePolls.JPGOne of 2 paintings that accompany "Pissed". Acrylic on Ink Jet Print. Image of Roy Moore riding his horse to the voting poll in Alabama. Faces obscured by Mardi Gras masks.
Perjury
This first exploration into the recontextualizing of Mardi Gras float construction allowed me to see the way scale, light and kinetic activity play out in a formal space. The movement of the mechanism began an interest in pairing the motion with a figure in the current political climate.
Secretary of Education
Secretary of Education is an extension in my interest in a crank/shaft mechanism, and the figurative possibilites that arise out of the dueling cam sytem. As a former teacher, I have a strong connection to public education and the ways that service is being manipulated. The installation uses sculpted and actual books that have been shot with assault rifles and shotguns in a reference to school shootings and a gesture toward the figure bobbeling a stack. This element of trompe l'oil is an newly recongnized element in my work that has me searching for a meaning.
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Secretary of EducationDocumentation of Secretary of Education being activated. 2018
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Secretary of Education
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Secretary of EducationSecretary of Education 2018 Mardi Gras float construction. Lights. Textbooks shot with assault rifle, marker on paper
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Secretary of Education detailSecretary of Education 2018 Mardi Gras Float construction. Lighting. Textbooks shot with assault rifles.
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Secretary of Education detailSecretary of Education 2018 Mardi Gras Float Construction. Lighting. Textbooks shot with assault rifle
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Secretary of Education detailSecretary of Education 2018 Mardi Gras Float Construction. Lighting. Security envelopes from student loan companies. Textbooks shot with assault rifles.
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Secretary of Education detailSecretary of Education 2018 Mardi Gras Float Construction, Lighting, Security envelopes from student loan companies, textbooks shot with assault rifles.
Projected Carnival
"Projected Carnival" is a video installation that uses the documentation from my body of kinetic float installations, and their destruction footage, to question the projected places of power held by those currently using the Carnivalesque to gain and hold power.
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Carnival ProjectionsVideo installation. Documentation of kinetic sculptures in motion, projected on burned float skirting. 2018
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Detail of "Projected Carnival".JPGDetail of "Perjury" being projected onto float skirting in "Projected Carnival".
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Detail of "Projected Carnival".JPGDetail of "Secretary of Education" projected on to float skirting in "Projected Carnival"
The Burning of "Pissed"
Part of the spectacle of the parade, and of the Mardi Gras float is the fleeting, ephemeral quality of its lifespan. It is only seen for a brief moment, and then it's gone. As a means of completing that cycle of a float's life, I perform a burning that acts a way of destroying the iconography so that new growth can occur.