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The complete title of the artwork above is "ZAQUARIUM-7: THE ELECTROSHOCK ETCHING TANK FROM HELL!".
I created the artwork below for THE HAND: The Magazine for Reproduction Based Art. It appears in edition 49 (July 2025). This artwork incorporates into it a scanable QR-Code which allows the readers of the magazine immediate access to this multimedia representation on their smartphones. This was Adam Finkelston's idea who offered me the chance to present my work which involved in a dynamic way printmaking practice as much as the products it produces.
I hereby dedicate this work to the Iranian artist Marian Zarrabi who has agreed to participate with me in the interactive art project that resulted in this complex artistic creation.
You can find her unique and multivaried work via her website and instagram channels (@samie_gallery) which demonstrate all the different media she is working in.
Like the artwork you may have scanned to reach this more complete iteration, this artwork is dense in content and tells a number of narratives simultaneously.
COMMENTARY
- This is a primary example of how the act of printmaking has been used as a tool itself to pose questions about the conflicts that can arise between artists who have alternative visions about what the very nature of art is.
The Film above is directly linked to a graphic artwork which is planned for publication in the near future. It highlights aspects of this short film which is in turn a complex process-based artworks that extends into other projects I've been working on and other media I work with. This is actually in every way a "Gesamtkunstwerk" that combines the different media in unique way; allowing the different areas to inform and provide alternative insights into the others, while at the same time presenting an individual and new way for me to be creative with the same material. You can imagine it like this. An initial set of ideas spark off in my brain about a given concept as I simultaneously work through all different aspects of a given subject matter. In this case, the physical creation of an etching tank made me consider the problematics of changing art as you etch images you transfer, and I involved other artists by willingly offering up their works to my insane invention... which in turn let to the creation of the idea of creating an imaginary film which would highlight in a dramatic way some of these problematic issues (which horror movies often tend to do). So in addition to the actual physical story of me inventing an upright tank to etch with (which I gave the wildly inappriate name "zap aquarium for electroshock etching" which I later shortened to simply "zaquarium" - so perfect because it appears to have my name in it, I have all the imaginary fiction I have invented or plan to invent around it. This is, however, a first introduction to the zaquarium... as it shows me etching a work of an Iranian artist who kindly agreed to participate in my project.
Of course, this is only an introduction to the project. You see, I am currently working on ZAQUARIUM-8 (there are actually 7 different types of electroetching zaquaria I invented in 2024), and Zarrabi herself has agreed to play a bigger role in this project. Below you fill find the image which linked to this page, and then some of the more complex theoretical writings I've already transcribed about the implications of creating a multilevelled artwork like this.
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