Office Paintings

On this evening Bryan Zanisnik presented a selection of videos of his choice, that relate to his practice. Among others, the videos include clips from the late, inscrutable Andy Kaufman, whose work Zanisnik admires for its elusiveness, being in between performance, surrealism and comedy.

Kaufman often created a tension of not knowing if the work was funny or awkward. Zanisnik is especially interested in the strange relation between audience and performer that Kaufmann created, caused by a blurring of boundaries between real life and performance, a confusion that Zanisnik also likes to create in his work.

Other videos that Zanisnik showed were by Werner Herzog, included because of the intensity and warmness of emotion in Herzog’s work, his over the top performative quality, both in narration and of his characters. Bryan Zanisnik specifically wants to draw attention to Herzog’s relationship with actor Klaus Kinski.

The evening closed with a clip from a conversation that the artist had on the US radio about his work and his relationship to trash and recycling in the United States.