JODY ZELLEN WORKS 2020-2022
Please click on the images below for more photographs and information about each project
The Waking Dream
Nan Rae Gallery, Woodbury University
October 22 - November 16, 2022
Combining elements of animation, collage, and sculpture the Nan Rae Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition titled "The Waking Dream" by Jody Zellen. The artworks in this exhibition speak to our collective cultural zeitgeist of the waning pandemic. Mandated isolation during the initial phase of the pandemic slowly transitioned into the discombobulating ebb and flow of variants combined with shifting health and social protocols. The visual thread throughout Zellen's intriguing approaches to various media is the strangely weird abstract duality of isolation and community.
Click HERE for more information.
a time to tear and a time to mend
Wonzimer
October 7 - November 18, 2022
"a time to tear, a time to mend" explores the advent of wisdom collection through ecological, historical, somatic, and technological artifacts. This exhibition asks: In the age of hyper-digitization, how can one assess, metabolize, and grieve traumatic events flashing across their timeline? How can one navigate information in a way that is healing and beneficial, both individually and communally? How can non-human ecologies inform our understanding of time and listening? What purpose do virtual and augmented realities serve in crafting our compass towards wisdom?
I composited four years of my Photo News Instagram postings (https://www.instagram.com/photonews5/) as four looping videos. The result is an ambiguous montage that poetically references the original photograph, albeit reducing it to its most graphic and stylized form. It catalogs 4 years of tragedy and triumph in the news cycle.
Click HERE to see the four composited videos.
People, Places, and Isolating Spaces
council_st
January 30 - February 26, 2022
An installation of collages, drawings, paintings and a video projection that are a meditation on the disconcerting times of the pandemic, as well as a reflection on isolation, nature, urban space, politics and walking. Each work features simple shapes and stick figures that when seen together form a larger narrative about the trials and tribulations of life.
Click HERE for more information.
The Human Touch, Augmented Reality Installation at Cerritos College
February 24 - March 6, 2020
The Human Touch is an augmented reality project where each photographic image is mapped to a unique animation when viewed through an Augmented Reality application.
Click HERE for more information.
The Unemployed
Los Angeles International Airport
Terminal 6, Depature Level
May - October, 2019
The Unemployed is a data visualization that illustrates worldwide unemployment. Using data culled from online sources that list unemployment rates by country, The Unemployed represents the jobless as animated figures. The number of unemployed varies from country to country ranging from a few thousand in sparsely populated places to many millions. As the software randomly cycles through the countries, the unemployed are depicted as figures moving in empty space. Passersby's movements are captured by a webcam and their silhouettes are projected onto the wall and transformed into an array of ambling figures. On the monitors, the figures move within the confines of their countries. The clusters of figures metaphorically become an available labor force, as well as the visible presence of the jobless.
Click HERE for more information.
K-Rail Mural Project
Ashland and Main Street, Santa Monica, CA
July 30, 2021 - present
I was commissioned to paint three K-Rail barriers located in downtown Santa Monica, CA as part of the city's "Art of Recovery" initiative. These barriers were placed between the street and the sidewalk to create safe spaces for dining outside. I created a stream of consciousness drawing that juxtaposed simple shapes with stick figures in varying sizes. When combined, they reference the frenetic nature of the city.
Click HERE for more information.
Grid City, from
We Are Here / Here We Are Exhibition
2900 Airport Avenue
May 16, 2020 - present
"Grid City," (2000/2020) was part of We Are Here / Here We Are, a Los Angeles County-wide exhibition of nearly 100 artists that explored the innate desire for connectivity through sensation. I installed vinyl banners on the facade of my studio at the Santa Monica Airport that remain on view to this day.
Click HERE for more information.
Drawings, Collages and Paintings
Drawn Collages
2020 - 2022
I cut up black pages from Artforum Magazine to create the silhouettes and then filled the surrounding space with stream of consciousness doodles.
Click HERE for more information.
Artforum Collages
2021
I also created 50 collages without a drawn element using pages from Artforum. I posted these to an Instagram page.
Click HERE for more information.
Paintings
2022
Acrylic and gouache paintings on canvas, 10 x 10 inches each.
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Avenue S, 2020 - present
"Avenue S" an ongoing project of photographs and animations posted to a new branch of my ongoing net-art project Ghost City. I began this new branch at the beginning of the pandemic and have continued to add pages on a weekly basis. The site now has over 400 unique artworks.
Click HERE for more information.
The Waking Dream, 2022
Animation, 15:49
Sound: Jonathan Zalben
The Waking Dream is an animation that features simple shapes and stick figures that combine to form a larger narrative about the trials and tribulations of life during the pandemic.
Click HERE for more information.
Pandemic Animations
2020-22
animations
Pandemic Animations is a collection of animations originally created for Avenue S that can be seen together on this webpage.
Click HERE for more information.
unemployment.world, 2020
unemployment.world is a website to accompany both an iOS app and a data visualization about worldwide unemployment. Using data culled from online sources that list unemployment rates by country, the unemployed are represented as animated figures, aimless and trapped. The number of unemployed varies from country to country, ranging from a few thousand in sparsely populated places to many millions. In this presentation, the figures move within the confines of their countries borders. The clusters of figures metaphorically become an available labor force, as well as the visible presence of the jobless.
Click HERE for more information.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Jody Zellen
jzellen@gmail.com
Full website: www.jodyzellen.com