Jamie Zill Senior Portfolio 2010-11: Artist

Friedrich Petzel Gallery

http://www.petzel.com/artists/

John Stezaker doesn’t seem to have his own homepage, yet his work can be found at:

http://www.artnet.com/artists/john-stezaker/

http://www.theapproach.co.uk/artists/stezaker/

http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/john-stezaker

BIOGRAPHY

John Stezaker (British, b.1949) is one of the leading artists in modern photographic collage and appropriation. Employing vintage photographs, old Hollywood film stills, travel postcards and other printed matter, Stezaker creates seductive and fascinating small-format collages that bear qualities of Surrealism, Dada, and found art. Indeed, in referring to the large compendium of images he has collected, Stezaker asserts that the images “find him”, not the other way around. With surgical-like precision, Stezaker excises, overlays and conjoins distinct images to create new personalities, landscapes and scenes.   John Stezaker studied at the Slade School of Art, and currently teaches Critical and Historical Studies at the Royal College of Art in London. Stezaker’s work has been exhibited internationally since the 1990’s and has been adopted in renowned museum collections around the world such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Saatchi Collection, London, and the Tate Modern, London.

http://www.richardgraygallery.com/artists/john-stezaker/

INTERVIEW

Recorded interview for the Tate Triennial 2006

this video can be found at:

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/triennial/video.shtm

QUOTES [on collage]

“It’s a way of looking at actually what you’re consuming at all times, in everyday life, through all these juxtapositions of images which occur that you’re oblivious to because you pigeonhole things in different ways. But if you look at the naked lunch of perception, of what’s there in front of your eyes, you are looking at collage. And… it’s a way of recognizing a space that we all live in, but we kind of don’t accept we live in, I suppose.”

John Stezaker in: Tate Britain. Video Interview: with John Stezaker. Tate Britatin. Tate, 6 Feb.

2006. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. <http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/

triennial/video.shtm>.

“[Collage] allows an opening up of the unconscious in a way that’s very direct.”

John Stezaker in: Tate Britain. Video Interview: with John Stezaker. Tate Britatin. Tate, 6 Feb.

2006. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. <http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/

triennial/video.shtm>.

John Stezaker's work encompasses precisely what my entry about coexistence described last week. There are different time periods, people, genders, scences, etc, living together, creating one seamless image that still makes sense to the human brain. I am very intrigued by his work, and it was difficult to choose only 4 images to post. I think that the variety chosen speaks to different ways of combining photographs. Although, Stezaker uses found images, and I am dealing with family images. Hearing him speak makes me wonder if it would be easier to work in his way. Found images are everywhere. The possibilities are endless. And yet, using only "my" images creates a much smaller scope that I can work in. But, it could be interesting because I can create things from what was and make something that I want. Whatever I want. I will definitely continue to use Stezaker as inspiration for the duration of this project.