 Zayd Menk
New Contemporaries Exhibition, Camden Arts Centre. 4.3.2… [title data entry fail] No matter how I try I will not understand this before me is a city of discarded technologies filmed I am part of this work lost I am/in all this mess a tangle of things strewn stacked massed stuck impossibly we are all of us hard wired together where is the function here? they destroyed the box containing this cacophony and fixed it with tape the modern mind is a thing of great beauty glorious even and I feel at peace here where technology has its guts out for all to see https://zaydmenk.com/
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what is this that I am doing in this space? experimenting with the coming together of things playing with possibilities inventing bodies talking with objects listening they surprise me by how they sing with each other and with me  With my granny
in the white bubble-like Honda civic driving to Taupo from Havelock North Perhaps I’m ten years old “what is an artist?” gran said an artist sees things observes everything their work shows this seeing I looked out the window as the forest sped by I remember intense joyful colours shapes details moving past and felt deeply in my heart this is what I am I love you gran  Humans have become adept in the creation of robots and machines which fulfil a useful purpose;
Vacuuming the floor Mowing the lawn A car is a machine which, as an extension of the human body allows us to travel in a different way, as does a bicycle. These machines are extensions of the human and articulated with physical interface designed entirely around the human body. The machines which we have surrounded ourselves with allow us to extend the reach of our will. The physical and material world is communicated to through the physical action. Speaking is a physical action. I want to go somewhere. I have a feeling of wanting to be in another place. I want to go to the beach to relax and to slow down mentally. To do this I use my physical body in communication with another invented/created physical body; a car, a bicycle, a train, an airplane. This is a particular point of interest for me; that our communication with the physical is our way of articulating beyond the physical. The communication of the spiritual / religious through physical mechanism saturates the history of automaton and "living" mechanisms.* That the physical is a means by which we are able to interact with all things so as to incorporate and convert these things through the actions they serve and the feelings which we have in response to the physical presence of these things. The subject of feeling is a place which my creative practise is specifically engaged with. This is why I specify that the mechanical exists as a language. We are adept in the subtle understanding of the physical. We are this physical, as well as whatever else we are! Our culture/society prioritises the useful or the clearly useful. This is seemingly common sense, but this favouring of the obviously useful is a limiting factor in our innovation and development. So much is not useful which still can be explored. Feelings are communicated through the physical gesture. A poetic use of the language of mechanism so as to suggest a relationship between us, who occupy a physical body and an invented physical, sculptural, mechanical body. The relationship between a person and this physical thing (a composition of stuff) is where the connection to the practice of puppetry exists. Puppetry is effective by way of a profound connectedness of the will and body of a person (puppeteer/audience/viewer) to the thing (puppet). Through this invented-body-thing feeling is expressed. This happens by the deep awareness and physical expression of techniques of puppetry performance. The specific communication of physical happens also as a result of the living tradition of puppet making which in part aims to give the human a feeling of sensing a particular and living body. Through geometry, physics, material quality and form. most often the puppet is a physical representation my interest is that this language has value beyond representation and that each suggestion can be isolated and combined with another words and phrasing may be used in description and instruction words and phrasing may be used as and for themselves combined to make only a shape only a sound here words and phrasing are separated from their obvious usefulness perhaps in so doing they are set free they may again be useful but no longer must they always be so so it is with the exploitation of previously useful objects within a poetic phrasing a previous purpose contributes even in the poetic all objects and material have a previous incarnation like the roots of words an invented poetic archeology of objects and materials *recommended reading -The Restless Clock by Jessica Riskin  The invisible
the hand the thing the firmament the environment the mechanical support system the thing that brings life that which allows to move the following the shadow the magician the thief the deceiver the force behind in front around holding embracing the mysterious female the valley spirit being that which is seemingly independent the character which we engage and believe the body of a thing the solid object morphology geometric details the area between points time spirit of change water air airplane wind moving still touching the hairs on the back of my neck stand up I can’t see the thing which is making that move I am alive here alone not alone impossible I am without I am inside inside me I breath through air connection complete in my body all through my whole body this air this food I eat moves me and through me completely I am this I am it the puppeteer this here this one they hiding hide not there unseen so we are convinced that it lives lives and breaths but something somewhere is what it is this that it moves could crush it could annihilate but doesn’t it gives allowing guides follows responding through what is all around focused inside subject solid object treasure a distraction from the whole bird shows air in flight invisible mapped by solids moving we are this of what we are deeply of to be this experience as allow-er to a livingness so proficient at hiding somewhere anywhere in discomfort finding repose calm breath is key in these moving moments when the life which I am is directed projected into another solid body I am collective I am shape shifter absolutely physically empathising spectrum of densities and porosities varying degrees of absorption I travel through sit inside stand in walk through passing through place solid seen not seen liquid gaseous puppeteer is human representative of firmament experiencing being allowing listening loudly to the seemingly weaker following what I can so easily prevail over is this not the giving of love? allowing life to be through another body sharing physically puppetry is by its nature the most intimate of expressive acts I am this body which you believe to be living knowing that it is me I am so totally this body unlikely still it is living letting my living breath through this other physical body also I am un-living without this surrounding which lets me live as is the puppet we are of the same piece of earth the life through this physical body mine yours object physical vessel for life I am a puppeteer in total giving through object I need not hide giving completely to another body renders me that which I have gifted with life neither of us owns this livingness This morning I was witness to the robin
whom I know so well (through summers and winters for countless passings) hold in beak with gentleness and care profound the final moult before the wing a damselfly (this creature I have been as much a human may feel to be) and for both I felt a care towards their sharing Gentle robin whipping tail of adolescence insect form living is here another’s dying (my conclusion in this common mystery) How one may the other become and in so doing undo a path which never was kindness even in seeming atrocity seemingly is this nature’s mystery phrasing in these poems there is such economy of placement whereby parts will communicate with each other anything more will only contribute to lessen my aim is not to finish an art piece rather to feel something through a composition  With so much effort going towards the promotion of an artist as brand competing through projections of (market) success and continuous creativity, I am happy to have an honest portrait of me and my creative practise. This includes an element of struggle, insecurity and the inevitability of an unknown future. Edward Baiduc has managed to capture the human that I am; in my North London studio, at the Royal Academy and within the nature I love and crave at the Walthamstow Wetlands Centre. The winding path of the artist is not necessarily the easiest to traverse. (I speak here for myself) There are dizzying heights and unfathomable descents, such shifts in altitude often take place within an insanely short space in time. I do love being in this creative way as an artist. I am learning all the time about what is possible and also what may not be. One thing I ask is that if you are in a position to financially support an artist please do so. This may be in purchasing an artwork or buying them a coffee someday! I wish to give thanks to all of you who have encouraged and supported me through good times and hard times... and the crazy mixture of both in the same moment! As a unifying concept; that which gives the impression of being alive.
A puppet gives this when performed proficiently with technicality and skill. An object can give this when referred to in a certain way. A mechanism can have this when there are sufficient indications given through design, movement engineering, rhythm and form, so as to inspire an empathetic physical feeling/response in the viewer. The notion of livingness draws together many strands of my creative research. In my drawing this is suggested towards by a feeling of recognition within the composition, once this has happened now it is time to stop. Livingnesses are hard to place, to define and/or to frame. Floating bodies maintain this due to the physical inspiration/stimulus from and through the fluid they are within. We are such a floating body. |
August 2024
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