Published on Untiteld Art Society’s Blog to accompany the exhibition CRIME AND PUNISHEDMENT. *note: this article has been edited here since it’s original publishing with updated pronouns for the artist*
At first glance there is something pleasantly and unapologetically naive about Zac Slams’ exhibition entitled CRIME AND PUNISHEDMENT at Untitled Contemporary Art’s Mainspace. The handling of the collages makes evident a kind of haphazard scrounging of materials, rapidly assembled with glue stains and bit of scotch tape peeking their way out from behind faces of porn-stars, magazine models and serial killers. Stuffed into plastic bags or cheap frames and hung at un-precise angles, askew like posters in a teenager’s bedroom, this work seems far from refined. There is no attempt at polish, precision or presentation. It is utterly indigestible.
Yet this young artist manages to tease out incredibly profound and important themes from unexpected sources. Sexual iconography, horror movie villains and serial killers are deftly placed next to, and on top of each other in ways that are incredibly intentional. Their work becomes a precise celebration of sexual liberation for the Other. Beneath it all is a wonderfully optimistic outlook for the future of queer culture and our society at large.
Drawing from prominent artists like Sarah Lucas[i] and Genesis P-Orridge[ii], who seek to deconstruct gender in an attempt to understand the expectations that western society has for those identities, this exhibition takes a very unique and contemporary perspective on gender politics. Rather than deconstruction, however, this work embellishes in the most literal and metaphoric ways. Fragmented human bodies are assembled in ways that are loving and violent all at once, and framed by magazine text extracted for the phrase’s odd humor. There is a sense of excess and generosity to this work that speaks to both the bombardment of media and ideas of indulgence and glamour so important to our world today. But it is all out of context, and in turn, the work encourages the viewer to question the context of the information blast we receive each day.
True to their generation, there is an aesthetic and handling of the work that speaks volumes of the “millennial” dialogue cropping up around us. It is only fitting that collage is their medium of choice. With so much content and images in the world around us, those of other generations oft wonder why we produce images at all. Yet for a young artist who has never really known a world without the Internet, the recycling and repurposing of images seems second nature. There is a caviler method to the way in which they extract bits of texts from magazines that can only be produced by someone who grew up with reality TV and pop-up ads. The text makes humorous jabs at their own work, finding innuendo in odd places. The phrases have the comedic timing and syntax of witty t-shirts, adding the same artificial personality to the assembled characters in their collages, as it would those who don such garb.
More so, the sensibility of the Internet is inherent in the work, right down to fabricated nostalgia for a bygone era of indulgence. The images are sourced from old magazines, 1970’s issues of Playboy and books belonging to the parents of friends and family. As the title would suggest, there is an illicit nature to the content of their work. Perhaps dreaming of times past way being gay was actually a crime. They layers of magazine cut outs are assembled in a way that seems reminiscent of a grade-school project, yet has all of the colors and aesthetics of mid-century design. This odd placement of youthful bounty and nostalgia seem right at home next to Instragram filters and selfies. they manages to create a platform in their work that both celebrates the aesthetics of the past, and questions the politics.
Underpinning the mash-up sensibility of flying dicks and blood spatters is a subtle and overwhelming sense of hope for the future. Like the horror movies so acutely referenced, or Carolee Schneemann’s video work Meat Joy[iii] there is a profound sense of liberation through rejecting social norms of clean and proper behavior. Slams takes every fringe culture and cult classic and puts them together to create a utopia of oddness. Through bombardment, it becomes the norm. While the intent is clearly not to advocate for the normalizing of and social acceptance of murder, violence and crime, it forces the viewer to question what our politics of acceptability are.
Slams’ work does not exist for your comfort zone, nor should it. It does not present a gentle idea of peace and prosperity where everyone is equal, organized and content. Deeply psychological, this work turns the notion of acceptability back onto the society and begs the question of why some things are allowed in the public view and others must find themselves in dark alleys and dirty bathrooms. Perhaps Slams’ heaven is one where the entire universe is a sticky men’s bathroom where sexual acts are performed freely and without constraint. But I would argue that it is more sensitive than that, and more self-aware.
To me, I see a young man not afraid to take risks, and shout for those that are far too often silenced. Slams takes an important place alongside the next generation of queer artists who advocate for total gender and sexual heterogeneity. Using the brazen images of the most depraved aspects of our society, we are seduced and overcome by yearning for the freedom that those in their collages represent. Through openness, understanding and compassion for things far too often misunderstood, there is, in their work, a dream for a future where all aspects of a generation’s identity – from orientation to gender to career interests – are discovered with care, liberation and acceptance.
This essay was published on UAS's blog. For more information abut the exhibition, artist and gallery you can visit http://www.uascalgary.org/main-space.html
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[i] Exploring Queerness with Found Objects, Artist Talk and Workshop by Zac Slams, Untitled Art Society, August 21st 2014, http://www.saatchigallery.com/aipe/sarah_lucas.htm.
[ii] Exploring Queerness with Found Objects, Artist Talk and Workshop by Zac Slams, Untitled Art Society, August 21st 2014, http://www.genesisbreyerporridge.com/
[iii] Meat Joy, Carolee Schneemann, video performance, 1964, http://www.caroleeschneemann.com/works.html