Zoe K. Reddy

My work can be characterized by certain qualities that cross between genres and contexts In this I have the luxury of exploring and utilizing many spheres to create what i experience as diverse and satisfying practice. I began my cultural education with a fascination for music and theater, performing in these contexts and building a visual vocabulary that borrowed from both spheres. Through my artistic education have come to cross these spheres into one another. My performances use aspects attributed to musical performance, but by playing with my own expertise in this field, I take these elements to a new position. My intention in this is to raise questions as to the context and reception of performance and its status. I use theatrical conventions like voice and costume to disassociate certain aspects from my performance from a purely visual context and in such i make my viewer wonder what it is they are witnessing. My video works lean on elements of low art, using video-clip editing and montage story lines, combined with simple effects to reproduce a certain ironic rhetoric which is as serious as it is tongue in cheek. I am interested in promotional tools as as art form, posters and flyer to build a reputation where none exists, to instill fame in the unknown and to bring my own practice closer to my personal fascination with stars, the stage, illusion, impersonation, and ultimately questions of identity. I find it just as challenging and as much a performance to play the curator role. In this i see the festival and art-show format as another stage where i can question the identity of the artists involved and explore the audience reaction, vital to understanding my own role as an artist and as a performer. By categorizing myself in different fields, artist, curator, DJ, performer, video-maker, festival programmer...etc I afford my works multiple layers and am able to create performances that draw on my experience and fantasy to combine high & low arts.