Z’otz*
It is almost antithetical to
creation that a communal practice should invent rather than a single,
egocentric notion. Within industry, science, education, even government - the
power of constructive group decisions have furthered invention and yet the
visual arts have traditionally been a one man show. The exception would be the
workshops that surrounded the old masters and yet Z’otz* is far from a
hierarchical creative endeavour and closer to an exercise in equality. Perhaps
the consuming growth in population has furthered a trend towards artistic
collaborations or the famously socialistic Canadian politics have rubbed off on
the arts community. Whatever the cause, the results have pushed the envelopes
of individual expression wide open with the addition of both techniques and
subject. Not only the merging of drawing styles but the personal preferences
towards images are passed back and forth between the members of the Z’otz* and
much like the passing of a baby around the members of a tribe, the progeny
flourishes and grows beyond a more singular parenting.
Z’otz* goes for an immediate
read and then a more subtle afterglow. The graphic potency, especially in the
standing figures, is almost poster-like and inspires visions of both
enlargements or reductions. The drawings in this series would make stunning,
cinematic billboards or sharp postage stamps. The articulation of the line is
acute and the balance between detailing and structural forms apt to the scale. Their
work is curious, so much so that the oddness of the name tends to be overlooked
in the perusal of eclectic visuals. This energetic collective of drawers
consisting of Erik Jerezano, Nahúm Flores and Ilyana Martínez, meet Sundays to
pass the paper and reshape their individual visual destinies to a more communal
and social end. To visit the studio while they are working is much like
visiting a den of puppies, cavorting and wagging their tales at their
mischievous interchanges. The wit and ingenuity of the collaborative output is
uppermost – and wasn’t the abandonment of the ego in favour of the enhanced
formula of additive perspectives the object of the exercise? Objective
attained!
Julie Oakes, Headbones Gallery–The Drawers 2008