Women and magic: the search for wonder in a dark world
As a writer, I'm known for painting rather grim word portraits. In a world filled with so much horror and darkness, being Zuzu Grimm becomes overkill.
Art became an escape from a general sense of hopelessness I've felt since repatriating to the United States in 2011. A saturated publishing market no longer caught my interest. And unlike a blog post or article, a painting can be hung and provide not only instant, but hours of viewing pleasure and thoughtfulness.
Inspired by the talking flowers in Alice in Wonderland—who are also reminiscent of the mean, gossipy old biddies who populate the poolside gazebo in my Lighthouse Point apartment complex—I began covering faces with flowers in a series of collage pieces I then began to custom frame on canvas.
I went further down the rabbit hole and began covering faces with other objects referenced in Alice in Wonderland.
And nature became even more sentient, growing eyes. And enlightenment became embodied in visible third eyes.
In spite of art becoming an escape from the real, I remembered that the covering of faces with flowers is also an ancient funereal practice, welcoming a body back to the earth from where it came. These canvasses are displayed in my Wonderland series.
Quietly, death became major theme in my art. The Calaveras County series emerged in the lead-up to the 13-year anniversary of my dear friend Wendy Soltero's murder in Los Angeles. "Calavera" is the Spanish word for skull, and Calaveras County, California was the site of a series of gruesome murders in the 1980s. In my life, California was the place of my greatest personal fractures, and it was first through writing, and now art in which I attempt to rebuild my core creative self.
My Muertos series includes Day of the Dead-inspired masks, as well as "collaborations" with long-dead artists such as Vincent Van Gogh and Salvador Dalí and altering Marilyn Monroe portraits to reveal her angelic nature.
And let's not forget my muse, Frida Kahlo, of whom I've made dozens of homages, many of which I gave away to loved ones around the world just as she did with her own portraits. I'm currently working on a huge series inspired by Frida's gorgeous outfits.
When looking at my art from an emotional distance, I also get the sensation that many of the canvases, and especially my wholly original collages with titles like "The Inconsistency of Landscape" and "The Confusion of Geography", demonstrate a kind of liminality—a betweeness—of a here and there, in which the subject is stuck. A limbo that reflects my Third Culture Kid and bi-racial cultural upbringing, as well as the post-traumatic stress disorder that unfortunately also defines my experiences on this planet.
As a feminist, I can also read the Wonderland series as a statement on women as objects. Many of the female figures I source from fashion magazines are already objectified multiple times over. By removing their faces, I exaggerate their less-than-human media portrayal.
Ultimately, my goal with these myriad artworks and styles is to bring beautiful things into a world that is increasingly ugly. Yes, even beauty has a dark side, but that's one with which I'm willing to live.
I hope you enjoy your visit to my version of Wonderland. Come again soon and see what's new in these strange parts.
~Sezin "Zuzu" Koehler
August 5, 2014
