Montgomery Zuckerbraun
KINO-MAN
*HONORABLE MENTION*
I feel odd calling myself a film student, because I am more of the thespian adjacent type. I feel odd calling myself a thespian, because I do not really hang around the stage much anymore. I draw more than both the latter activities, but I wear the title of artist quite awkwardly. I would then say that I am "not an artist," but I once saw someone wearing a shirt that read that, and realized how unsavory it sounded, as an announcement, in an obviously artistic environment (of which this exhibition is), and so, I am an artist. I enjoy expressionism and envy what I have just learned is called analytical cubism.
For most of my work, my purpose has been to enjoy myself, or unwind, or develop stories—not to touch on direct self-expression, or emotional outpouring, or the like. This has changed very recently, in which for the first time, I am making art to try to say something intrinsic to my background that I could not put into words before. So, here I go, trying to put it into words. To add to the list of ‘things that I am:’ I am Jewish. Looking at the past, as a Jew, and at Jewish history, is odd. It feels intrinsically sensational, dramatic, and horrible. Being Jewish feels like living in a pulp serial, and you are on the wrong end of the plot, and it is ridiculous. From a distance, you must laugh at the absurdity, misfortune, and demonization, because there is nothing else to do. Being born in 2002, I have not lived through any significant examples of such, so the most that I can do to even comprehend the terrible history of my people is to warp it. I create abstractions of feelings that I will never feel. I create a narrative for myself from the narratives of others, and because of the incomprehensible horror of it all, it is a narrative of both hard truth and sensational fiction, one that becomes approximated into that brand of pulp. I am attempting, therefore, to blend what was simultaneously labeled as "degenerate art" (and perhaps one of the most iconic movements of Germany) and my love of serial horror to show as best I can how my thoughts and approximations of the past twist themselves into characters and art. With this work, KINO-MAN, I aim to illustrate both the enemy that is the anti-Semite, and the anti-Semite’s idea of the enemy Jew. I am inspired by German expressionism film, the rightfully sensational aesthetic of evil in popular depictions of the Reich, and the stark colors and shapes of Soviet propaganda.
My near-sole medium is what I have titled digital multimedia. I use multiple programs to collage my own digital work with itself, across various degrees of simulation of traditional paint, feigned print, and other digital tools and processes.