Daniel Marzipam uses sculpture, film, real-time
satellite broadcasts, damp paper, self-replicating ‘organobots’, investment
capital, little bits of tin and glass, family members (awake and asleep) and
clever marketing to explore the effects of time on the artist. Harnessing the
symbolic and emotional potential of objects, places and situations, he pats it
on its steaming flank and gives it an apple. When the symbolic and emotional
potential of objects, places and situations has calmed down and trusts him he
mounts it, using a saddle fashioned from his unique world metaphor. Then,
he spurs it into headlong flight with a special mental impetus derived from
certain personal resonances.
Ideas about memory, and remembrances of inspiration, permeate much of
Marzipam’s work. The four-screen video installation, My Granny
Wanted Chips 2003, focuses on the personal memories of his widowed
grandmother, on film for the first time talking about her honeymoon in
Morecambe. She stares miserably ahead coming down the big slide, and later has
a Cornetto. The soundtrack combines a gentle piano melody – Walk In The
Black Forest by Bobby Crush - with tram wheels. Luckily, their circular
movement echoes the turning sails and creaking mechanism of an illuminated
seaside windmill, driving home Marzipam’s poignant elision - the duality of
passing time, the inevitability of death - with ruthless precision.
As
usual, Marzipam refrains from moral judgement or content. This is my right, he
seems to be saying, as an artist. Confronted as we are by giant flip-flops,
live-feed images of nothing, bus shelters suddenly made interesting because
the artist says they're similar to the ones outside Auschwitz, we are
encouraged to respond to his uncomfortable symbolism, without the stifling
comfort of meaning or purpose. Themes of love and memory engage us on a
visceral level, emphasising vulnerability, the impossible lostness of oneself
in time, the enigma of time versus location, and the idea of the human spirit
as a thought-wave always slipping backwards, with a smile on its face.
Daniel Marzipam uses sculpture, film, real-time
satellite broadcasts, damp paper, self-replicating ‘organobots’, investment
capital, little bits of tin and glass, family members (awake and asleep) and
clever marketing to explore the effects of time on the artist. Harnessing the
symbolic and emotional potential of objects, places and situations, he pats it
on its steaming flank and gives it an apple. When the symbolic and emotional
potential of objects, places and situations has calmed down and trusts him he
mounts it, using a saddle fashioned from his unique world metaphor. Then,
he spurs it into headlong flight with a special mental impetus derived from
certain personal resonances.
Ideas about memory, and remembrances of inspiration, permeate much of
Marzipam’s work. The four-screen video installation, My Granny
Wanted Chips 2003, focuses on the personal memories of his widowed
grandmother, on film for the first time talking about her honeymoon in
Morecambe. She stares miserably ahead coming down the big slide, and later has
a Cornetto. The soundtrack combines a gentle piano melody – Walk In The
Black Forest by Bobby Crush - with tram wheels. Luckily, their circular
movement echoes the turning sails and creaking mechanism of an illuminated
seaside windmill, driving home Marzipam’s poignant elision - the duality of
passing time, the inevitability of death - with ruthless precision.
As
usual, Marzipam refrains from moral judgement or content. This is my right, he
seems to be saying, as an artist. Confronted as we are by giant flip-flops,
live-feed images of nothing, bus shelters suddenly made interesting because
the artist says they're similar to the ones outside Auschwitz, we are
encouraged to respond to his uncomfortable symbolism, without the stifling
comfort of meaning or purpose. Themes of love and memory engage us on a
visceral level, emphasising vulnerability, the impossible lostness of oneself
in time, the enigma of time versus location, and the idea of the human spirit
as a thought-wave always slipping backwards, with a smile on its face.