2020

Times Square is famous for its sensational signage, evolving from neon-covered facades in the 1920s, to the modern day 25-story LED display. Through the many evolutions of this crossroads, it has always offered visitors a type of visual overstimulation with its over-the-top lights and advertisements. With this history in mind, the video “I Wander the Forest in Search of Mystery” offers a respite from the flashing, quick-cut editing of the surrounding images. In it, a chandelier slowly twirls in a forest by a lake. The optic qualities of the cut crystal are activated by sunlight and enhanced by pastel atmospheres that move through the frame. The video highlights the incandescence of light and the reflective effect of glass as fleeting moments that create a fictional romantic history. Tranquil movements offer a calm counterpoint to the saturated, sumptuous commercial displays and the hustle of New York City.

The interior of ZAZ10TS includes neon and LED light sculptures as a nod to Times Square’s history of signage, accompanied by bright wallpapers and a large format print. In the elevator bank “Poppies” b&w wallpaper and collagraph are colored by the light of a neon poppy, repositioning how viewers relate to color, light, and pattern.

I Wander the Forest in Search of Mystery is in the Permanent Collection of the  Museum of American Glass in Millville, NJ.

Original soundtrack by Maralie