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.

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.  
  • Perjury
    Documentation of Perjury being activated.
  • Perjury.jpg
    Perjury.jpg
  • Perjuryoverhead.jpg
    Perjuryoverhead.jpg
  • Perjury(side view).jpg
    Perjury(side view).jpg
  • Perjury(detail).jpg
    Perjury(detail).jpg
  • Perjury Back view.jpg
    Perjury Back view.jpg
  • Perjury(Action Shot)
    Perjury(Action Shot)

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. 
  • Secretary of Education
    Documentation of Secretary of Education being activated. 2018
  • Secretary of Education
    Secretary of Education
  • Secretary of Education
    Secretary of Education
    Secretary of Education 2018 Mardi Gras float construction. Lights. Textbooks shot with assault rifle, marker on paper
  • Secretary of Education detail
    Secretary of Education detail
    Secretary of Education 2018 Mardi Gras Float construction. Lighting. Textbooks shot with assault rifles.
  • Secretary of Education detail
    Secretary of Education detail
    Secretary of Education 2018 Mardi Gras Float Construction. Lighting. Textbooks shot with assault rifle
  • Secretary of Education detail
    Secretary of Education detail
    Secretary of Education 2018 Mardi Gras Float Construction. Lighting. Security envelopes from student loan companies. Textbooks shot with assault rifles.
  • Secretary of Education detail
    Secretary of Education detail
    Secretary of Education 2018 Mardi Gras Float Construction, Lighting, Security envelopes from student loan companies, textbooks shot with assault rifles.

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.
  • https://youtu.be/qfqY87_v5fo
    Installation of Pissed at the Lazarus Center. Baltimore, MD 2018
  • PissedOverhead.JPG
    PissedOverhead.JPG
    Installation view of "Pissed" from overhead.
  • revisedpissed.jpg
    revisedpissed.jpg
    Installation view of the left side of "Pissed".
  • MikePenceHead.JPG
    MikePenceHead.JPG
    Detail of the head of Mike Pence from "Pissed" Installation.
  • Triggeredfeet.JPG
    Triggeredfeet.JPG
    Detail of the feet as the knees shake
  • Triggered Pissed Head.JPG
    Triggered Pissed Head.JPG
    Detail of the head of "Pissed" when the lighting is changed by the sensor in the next stall.
  • DetailofHand.JPG
    DetailofHand.JPG
    Detail of the off hand.
  • Rally.JPG
    Rally.JPG
    One of 2 paintings that accompany the installation. Acrylic on Ink Jet Print.
  • RoyatthePolls.JPG
    RoyatthePolls.JPG
    One 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.

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.
  • Carnival Projections
    Video installation. Documentation of kinetic sculptures in motion, projected on burned float skirting. 2018
  • Detail of "Projected Carnival".JPG
    Detail of "Projected Carnival".JPG
    Detail of "Perjury" being projected onto float skirting in "Projected Carnival".
  • Detail of "Projected Carnival".JPG
    Detail of "Projected Carnival".JPG
    Detail of "Secretary of Education" projected on to float skirting in "Projected Carnival"

Communications Commission

"Communications Commission" is a kinetic installation that uses a hydraulic pump system to animate the sculpture of a figure driving a Barbi Ferrari.  The combination of burned float skirting, and the alluminum dubloons used at Mardi Gras are in a dialog that sets the stage for the spectator to kneel at the sculpture to activate it.
  • Communication Commission
    Communications Commission (activated) 2018 Mardi Gras float construction. Hydraulic Pump system. Wooden levers
  • fcc6.jpg
    fcc6.jpg
    Communications Commission 2018 Mardi Gras Float construction. Hydraulic pumps.
  • Communications Commission. detail
    Communications Commission. detail
    Communications Commission 2018 Mardi Gras float construction. Hydraulic system. Wooden Levers. Dublooms.
  • Communication Commission (Pump System)
    Communication Commission (Pump System)
    Communications Commission 2018 Mardi Gras float construction. Hydraulic pump system. Wooden levers. Dublooms.
  • Communications Commission. detail
    Communications Commission. detail
    Communications Commission 2018 Mardi Gras float construction, Hydraulic pump system, wooden levers, doubloons

The Burning of "Secretary of Education"

The ephemeral quality of the Mardi Gras spectacle comes from the brief, passing quality of the experience.  The floats are only viewed by any spectator for a few minutes before it is gone forever.  The idea limiting their existence, and creating a tangible amount of time they were available led me to burn "Secretary of Education".
  • The Burning of "Secretary of Education".
    Performance of the destruction of "Secretary of Education". Video 43:00 min

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.
  • The Burning of "Pissed"
    Performance of the destruction of the "Pissed" float by fire 2018 53:00 min
  • Detail of Performance.JPG
    Detail of Performance.JPG
    Detail of the burning of Pissed
  • Detail of Performance.JPG
    Detail of Performance.JPG
    Detail of the burning of Pissed.
  • Detail of Performance.JPG
    Detail of Performance.JPG
    Detail of the performance, The Burning of "Pissed"