{"id":43268,"date":"2019-07-09T17:42:02","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T21:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=43268"},"modified":"2019-07-09T18:03:48","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T22:03:48","slug":"zotz-at-yyz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=43268","title":{"rendered":"Z\u2019otz at YYZ"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The art collective Z\u2019otz is currently displaying their latest mural, drawings and sculptures in the north-end gallery of YYZ Artist\u2019s Outlet. Z\u2019otz derive their name from the indigenous Mayan word for bat<\/em>, the small flying mammal. The collective\u2019s three members \u2013 Ilyana Mart\u00ednez, Nah\u00fam Flores and Erik Jerezano \u2013 all came from that region. Flores comes from Hunduras, while Mart\u00ednez and Jerezano grew up in Mexico. All three have for many years lived and worked in Canada. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the main wall of the gallery is a mural, drawn directly onto the wall using pastels and charcoal. So once the show is over the mural is destroyed. Z\u2019otz tell me this is a routine practice for them. They view these murals \u2013 they have produced many before \u2013 as performative in nature. Very often they are drawn while the public is visiting the gallery, so there is an inherent social dimension to their production. The mural comprises a number of interlocking surreal figures based on animal and plant life. Included in this particular mural are four nichos, stuck to the wall and incorporated into the overall composition. The central American nicho is traditionally a very colourful shadow box containing pictures or improvised sculptures, often made from inexpensive domestic materials. In this case the monotone cardboard nichos contain crude sculptures with a simply painted background which echoes the forms of the mural itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The mural on the wall by Z’otz Collective <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beasts of all sorts populate their work. In their individual drawings on paper we find, for example, a polar bear with a handbag, a moose with what looks like an elephant\u2019s trunk as a tail. In addition there are two smallish sculptures rendered in clay that each resemble something between a head and a body perforated with various orifices. Their figures \u2013 on the wall, on paper or in clay \u2013 are disclosures of a fervid imagination. But, most interestingly, the imagination at work is collective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dissected ideas, 2008, mixed media on paper, 11″ x 15″<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shaman and the Treasure Table, 2008, mixed media on paper, 11″ x 15″<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three members have, for nearly fifteen years now, met once a week to produce their art work. During these weekly sessions they continually pass the drawing or sculpture on from one person to the next until they decide it is complete. In basic outline their working process is like that of the former Winnipeg collective The Royal Art Lodge<\/em> (1996-2008), that similarly met once a week to produce their work. Z\u2019otz\u2019s work also has many of the graphic qualities of the Winnipeg group, but the preoccupations of these collectives differ markedly. The  Royal Art Lodge\u2019s drawings very often feature text and make explicit references to popular culture. By comparison Z\u2019otz\u2019s work is far more unspecified in its subject matter and its references.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flirting with Doubt 1, 2012 – 2018, mixed media on paper, 15″ x 22″<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The generality of Zotz\u2019s works, I aver, is the product of their collective exploration of the unconscious, as opposed to imagery that is generated directly from the outside world. One might say that Flores, Mart\u00ednez and Jerezano eschew the expression of their individual imaginations. They told me that they often deliberately erase or draw over each other\u2019s drawing. In place of an admixture of the members\u2019 individual styles and preoccupations there arises a set of archetypal images, to borrow Jung\u2019s terminology. Such archetypes are ideas that exist independently of any individual, and constitute instead a set of universal ideas. For Carl Jung these universal ideas essentially exist in the psychic world \u2013 one that exists in synchronicity with the physical world \u2013 that our individual minds can somehow access. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Installation view of Z’otz, Small Contribution to a Big Moment<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do not mean to suggest that Z\u2019otz are literally tapping into a psychic realm in the way Jung imagined. Rather, I mention Jungian psychology as a heuristic, as a way to begin to understand how Z\u2019otz end up producing an array of imagery that transcends the particularities of our culture. The hybrid creatures found in Z\u2019otz works seem timeless. They echo, for example, the Mayan mythical figure of the p\u00e1jaro hombre<\/em> (bird-man). And these creatures equally resonate with us, despite our being remote from the likes of Mayan civilisation. Z\u2019otz are able to mine a collection of imagery that belongs to no one in particular, but rather is latent in the unconscious of all of us. As a result their work is gripping in a way that is hard to pin down. It is elusively compelling work. Their drawings and sculptures have an authenticity that is rarely found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hugh Alcock<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images are courtesy of Z\u2019otz Collective<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Exhibition information: Z\u2019otz Collective, Small Contribution to a Big Moment<\/em>, May\n23 \u2013 July 20, 2019, YYZ Artists Outlet, 401 Richmond Street West, Toronto. Gallery\nhours: Tue \u2013 Sat 11 am \u2013 5 pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Hugh Alcock<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is elusively compelling work. Their drawings and sculptures have an authenticity that is rarely found<\/p>\n

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