Johannes Zits's work explores the idea of transgression as it relates to both public and private spaces. His images attempt to challenge the viewer, and to make us question how these spaces are defined, mediated, and consumed. This body of work has developed from his interest in the representations of intimacy, the body, and mass media. Lifestyle and interior design magazines are of particular interest to the artist, who is fascinated by the ways in which they expose private living spaces for public consumption. Privacy becomes spectacle in the same way that sexual acts become pornography when they are made public; both have the intention to tease and tantalize. In his work, Johannes Zits combines porn and interior design iconography into unconventional domestic scenes.
Over the past four years Johannes has been painting figures onto digitized interiors that have been appropriated from magazines. For his first solo exhibition at Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain, the artist will present a new series of works where he has added collage to the painted figures. The collage material comes from a wide variety of sources, such as a flyer from a local grocer or an ad for a telephone chat-line. For some of the works he has painted directly onto the pages of interior design magazines. Other pieces have been enlarged in order to emphasize the dot screen pattern of the original printed source.
Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain will present concurrently the most recent video by Johannes Zits entitled Guys Night In. The video was produced for a residency at Trinity Square Video in Toronto and premiered last fall at the TransTech Video Festival. For this time-based work, Johannes has applied a similar collage technique to the guests attending a potluck party. Through a combination of images and sounds we can glimpse at what is being thought, mediated and consumed. What can happen while doing the dishes on a hot summer night?
Articles:
- Projet de posters à Amsterdam à l'automne 2002: ROZE FILMDAGEN
- Le degré zéro de l'intériorité: Article de Nicolas Mavrikas, dans Voir - 14 mars 2002 p. 49
- Entrevue-vidéo avec l'artiste sur nuitsdemontreal.com, 23 février 2002