Bryan Zanisnik is native New Jersean living in New York. He is also a multi-media artist who uses sculpture, painting, photography, video, and many other mediums to create installations filled with a wide variety of printed imagery, found objects, and discarded materials. His work is influenced by a place, a movement, or an untold story that he can bring into the spotlight, not only with his permanent and semi-permanent instillations but also with his platform as a well-known NYC art entity.
I found Zanisnik’s work via the website Art21.com and was intrigued by his attention to mundane details and his flair for utilizing small variations of repetitive imagery. His work is busy and feels, from the outside, sloppy and chaotic but as you glance closer, his attention to detail shines through and you realize that each piece, although hand placed and un-neat, is very deliberate in its own space and curation. Zanisnik’s collection of materials reminds me of my own process of walking, thinking, documenting, and formulating. It’s fascinating to watch him wander and ponder.
From his interpretation of the New Jersey Meadowlands (a weird natural mirror of the subconscious of Manhattan), to creating monoliths that memorialize and tell the story of the Syrian and Armenian silk workers in Summit, New Jersey, Zanisnik is always looking to tell a story, a history, and create a lasting sense of connection between the viewer, the artwork, and the inspiration. Zanisnik’s work ‘Silk Monument’ uses archival images, historical texts, and conversations with locals that he covers these monoliths with, to visually tell the story of how immigrants built the mill town into a work horse for silk fabric manufacturing in the United States during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Using research to his advantage, Zanisnik acts as a curator with much of his work, piqued by materials as pieces to a puzzle that he eventually fits together to make a whole. His monoliths look to be normal monuments with plaques like any other historical marker but with Zanisnik twists. “I was thinking about the viewer’s relationship to these sculptures, and how from a distance, they look very formal, but as you get closer, there are all these details about the Syrian-Armenian community and historical architecture that begins to reveal itself,” (Di Liscia).
Zanisnik describes his chaotic process by explaining, ““I kind of think of building one of my installations as if I’m constructing a stream of consciousness that’s not every word leads to the next but there’s an overall mood and feeling being constructed” (Art21 - 04:36).
In the end, his pieces are a beautiful collection of chaos that are filled with common/comfortable materials positioned in unnatural ways, always visually stimulating, with great attention to detail while looking ‘thrown together’. Esoteric creativity tied to deep meaning and vulnerability when seen from a macro level. I would love to try and see what stories I could tell in this same vein and see how my mind would interpret all the information while embracing the esoteric connections that my brain makes under normal circumstances. I fear the process might engulf my life. Regardless of my own follow through, Zanisnik’s process will spur me on as a fine artist and keep me invigorated for the near future.
Here are some links to his work and his website:
https://www.zanisnik.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bryanzanisnik/
Bibliography:
Di Liscia, V. (2021) https://hyperallergic.com/660944/an-unlikely-monument-to-the-syrian-and-armenian-communities/
Art 21 (2014) https://art21.org/watch/new-york-close-up/bryan-zanisnik-goes-to-the-meadowlands/