Interview the Brooklyn Rail was too chickenshit to print:
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He is simultaneously one of the world’s best and worst kept secrets. Shunned by establishment for his revolutionary work in cinema and art and honored by generations of admirers for the very same reason, legendary Nick Zedd relocated to Mexico in 2011 with his wife, where he is now a father and painter. He recently authored the Extremist Manifesto and continues to transfigure work in the spirit of transgression. Introducing Nick Zedd, the creator of Cinema of Transgression…
Vienna Boa (Rail): Why did you leave NYC?
Nick Zedd: I was fed up with accepting an existence in which I was periodically threatened by psychotic landlords, corporation council lawyers representing hostile parties, and a shrinking social scene passing for an art community corrupted by infighting, petty jealousy and rancid opportunism. Being surrounded by square people, yuppies, NYU scum and faux hipsters with money to burn, it was easy to become agoraphobic but the obscene expense of remaining there as an act of defiance while being ripped off by overpriced commodities and rent made no sense after I had a taste of Mexico City.
For the first time in my life I feel at home somewhere. I don’t have to pay a fortune to live in a tiny apartment with sporadic heat and hot water in the winter, where roaches and bedbugs flourish the way they do in NYC.
I don’t have to deal with borderline sociopaths mutated by the competitive job market and deeply conservative social values imposed upon them by the media, municipal government and commercial interests that oppress everyone in NYC. Likewise the rancid art establishment and entertainment industry in NYC, which offered me no support while rewarding mediocre artists adept at kissing ass, made me not miss anything when I left.
The better weather, food and diverse architecture of Mexico City must unfortunately be balanced against the fact that the art scene here is equally reactionary and suffused with people, especially ones with influence, money and power, who are chronic liars and corrupt to the core.
It’s somewhat difficult to accomplish collaborative work since many people here are unreliable, but fortunately since I am self-motivated and now producing my own paintings, that doesn’t matter so much. I’ve always believed in living dangerously, so moving to Mexico City made sense. Staying in one place too long can be stifling. That was definitely the case in NYC.
I reinvented myself when I moved to Mexico where I have no past and can’t be cursed by the ghosts of memories. Every day I live in the present. It’s very different from Manhattan where the future always seems more important than the present.
Rail: What do you find interesting about Mexico and how has Mexico inspired your creative process?
Zedd: The smells in the air, the wind moving the trees, the faces of the people, the tranquility and sense of peace, the feeling of being transported to another dimension, the illusion of a more caring environment. I feel less threatened and distracted here. In NYC I felt like a target, waiting to be betrayed or attacked. Betrayal takes a more deceptive and charming form in Mexico. To an expatriate like myself, Mexicans can seem even more dishonest than New Yorkers, where the hostility is more in your face.
I think I lost interest in humanity after living so long in NYC. People are different in Mexico: remote, yet not hostile. I’m rediscovering humanity here.
Here, my creative process is less influenced by other people. It’s more inwardly directed. In NYC, it was more influenced by the people I’d encounter, many of whom were recent transplants from other places. I was actually more inspired by a trip to Berlin last year, which reminded me of the feeling of NYC in the 90’s. I wrote a screenplay that I wanted to film there, but was rejected for funding by the reactionary cultural institutions in Berlin and Austria who I’d been assured would support me. As usual, I was considered radioactive: my ideas too subversive for the cretins dispensing the funds.
Rail: Why has your art been suppressed?
Zedd: I’ve been told it’s “too strong,” whatever that means.
Rail: Has your work found an audience in Mexico? What do they bring to the experience of creating politically relevant art as compared to the audience in NYC?
Zedd: Yes, on the rare occasions when I’ve circumvented the barriers erected by the backward gatekeepers who run things, initiating screenings and art shows in places like the Macabro Festival, where I DJd and showed movies in the Museo Britanico and in a shutterbug’s studio apartment where large numbers of people showed up and were electrified.
I have a huge untapped audience here, like in NYC. They’re starving for this stuff but the cretins in control are hiding it from them. It’s only on rare occasions that my work is seen, but every time it happens people are so grateful and enthusiastic since the norm is that safe pedestrian art that clogs the theaters and galleries like a backed up septic tank. We have to organize an alternative place to showcase this material…as usual it’s all about real estate and landlordism which, along with “good taste” is the enemy of art.
Rail: Are you finding any profound or superficial differences between the art establishments in Mexico and NYC?
Zedd: No. They’re both run by utterly clueless gatekeepers with no interest in breaking any rules, starting anything new or contributing anything of lasting significance. Today’s galleries and curators demonstrate daily that their sole function is to shuffle money around and tow the line by showcasing stuff that’s big and bland. These people and their supplicants shun innovation and danger.
Contemporary art is an exclusive club for people with money and nothing to say. It’s a secular religion that remains reactionary and indifferent to the lessons we’ve learned from history. They reject the concept of movements and creative vanguards as well as individual breakthroughs, embracing ironic indifference, a form of cowardice and evasion designed to cloak a compulsion to conform that is deeply ingrained in most participants in this fraud. The entire system of contemporary art needs to be destroyed which is what’s happening with the extremist art movement that’s replacing it. Anger is an energy they don’t understand. Curators and collectors don’t make history; artists do. Today’s best artists are being buried alive. The bland conceptual and business art favored by today’s museums and galleries represents a void that negates creative achievement and leaves us with nothing. It’s a fraud that will soon die of it’s own self-inflicted entropy and elitism. It represents everything that I hate.
Rail: What are you currently working on?
Zedd: Larger paintings and a fanzine I’m editing called Hatred of Capitalism which includes the Extremist Manifesto along with writing, photos and drawings by Mexicans I’ve met who have been quarantined from the contemporary art world for being too unconventional and threatening to the status quo.
Rail: In 2008 you began painting creatures that resemble human babies, but which have a distinctively alien quality to them. What do you call these creatures?
Zedd: I don’t believe in labels. I’m not here to spoon-feed. You might call them xenomorphic entities. Or you can call them anything you want.
Rail: Are they a metaphor for having your own child? Was painting them an exploratory process in which you developed your awareness of what it is to bring life into this world? Am I reading too far into this?
Zedd: That is actually a very insightful interpretation that might or might not be true. For the first time in this interview you have started to think.
Rail: What inspires your painting process?
Zedd: A desire to communicate with colors. It’s a process of discovery.
Rail: Do you set out with an intention to create a particular image or do you work intuitively?
Zedd: I don’t know where the things I paint come from. It can’t be explained.
Rail: What are you painting right now? And Why?
Zedd: I am painting larger canvases utilizing my own blood and cum. These liquids give the paintings magical properties that bring me success. The cum makes a spectral glaze. The red of the blood is stronger than any pigment you can buy. The paintings are a part of me now: not just my nervous system but also a product of my libido and life force. Next I'll incorporate piss and shit.
Rail: Approximately how long do you spend working on a painting before you feel it is ready to be shared with the public? What materials do you use? How do you know you are finished working on a piece?
Zedd: It might take a month or two weeks depending on the size or distractions in life. I can do one in a day or two if it’s smaller. I use oil, blood and cum on canvas. It’s finished when I feel like it.
Rail: What about filmmaking? Are you currently more interested in painting than in Cinema of Transgression?
Zedd: Until I get the money to do the feature film, I’m focusing on painting.
Rail: Why do you currently channel your creative process into painting, rather than film and television?
Zedd: It’s cheaper and doesn’t require unreliable collaborators with mental problems.
Rail: Regarding the creation of film I have read you comment that you would like to see "original ideas expressed by artists with conviction and style." That said, are real artists born or made? And further, what makes a real artist?
Zedd: I can’t generalize. You have to be obsessed to create.
Rail: How did it feel to have a festival of your work at Williamsburg's Glass House Gallery this past January?
Zedd: Ever so special.
Rail: What kind of people do you think connect with your work? What is it that they are seeking that you seem to provide and hit right on their target?
Zedd: They might be outsiders, truth seekers or misfits with a more refined sense of taste than the usual idiots conditioned by misinformation provided by today’s simulated life. But this is speculation.
Rail: Was there ever a "good" time to be an artist in NYC?
Zedd: When rents were affordable and there were jobs.
Rail: You found that New York public access television was a suitable medium for freely expressing your political and creative ideas. Does Mexico have public access television, and if so, would you consider launching another series similar or dissimilar to Electra Elf?
Zedd: Mexico does not have public access television. I tried selling Electra Elf to Televisa and they rejected it. TV is unwatchable in Mexico.
Rail: Is there an open mike scene in Mexico in which you care to take part? Have you become acquainted with Mexican cabaret?
Zedd: Like NYC, it’s dead. No open mike scene. I went to a Mexican cabaret once and walked out. It sucked.
Rail: How did it feel to receive an Acker Award this year for your achievement in avant-garde cinema? Do you identify as an avant-garde filmmaker and artist? Is there a difference between what you consider "avant garde" and "underground" art?
Zedd: It felt nice, though it would have felt better if I got paid something.
There’s no difference between the two terms. Why get hung up on semantics?
Rail: Please describe the custom clothing line that you and Monica Casanova have created. Where can we get it?
Zedd: We hand stitched patches with images from my movies onto t-shirts and hoodies, along with stenciled shapes and colors. No stores in NYC or elsewhere will sell them. They were for sale in one store for a month before being removed. As usual, if you do anything original it terrifies people so they have to get rid of it. Go to my website; you can still get a few thru the mail.
Rail: Please describe your multimedia work. Do you incorporate your previous works into live performances?
Zedd: Yeah, I run two movie projectors, a video projector, two turntables and a CD player. There’s nothing on earth like it. People beg for more, cheering and waving their fists. And then years go by before it happens again.
Rail: Have you ever performed live, sung, played an instrument, been in a band, or acted in theater? Have you ever been inspired to create music?
Zedd: I was in a noise unit called Zyklon B from 1999 to 2001. I did vocals. We put out a single called Consume Or Die on Rubric. We were the best band in New York. It didn’t last. I acted in a play called The Intruder by Maurice Maeterlinck in 2001.
Rail: What kind of music do you spin when you DJ? What sparked your interest in DJing?
Zedd: I spin the unexpected. I’ve been doing it for years, since the Art Space on Ridge Street got shut down by the cops. Most DJs are robots with no taste. It’s easy to be a DJ when you have a big record collection.
DJs who play off laptops are cheating. I saw a DJ in Mexico City talking on his cell phone while his assistant changed songs on his laptop. That’s not DJing.
When I DJ people dance. Imagine!
Rail: Did you ever think you'd have a family?
Zedd: No, I thought I’d continue being a loner…but then my priorities changed.
Rail: What ticks you off about people?
Zedd: Lies. Hypocrisy. Dumb questions.
Rail: What makes you love people?
Zedd: Honesty, loyalty, vulnerability, humor, a sense of wonder.
Rail: What do you value most from the experience of life?
Zedd: I value loyalty, friendship and love. That’s part of the challenge and process of discovery inherent in raising a child and in exploring new mediums like painting. The fact that most people consider painting to be dead just shows how utterly wrong they are (as usual.) Especially curators, museum directors and art critics. When I was making underground films, they were also considered dead and I proved them wrong. Likewise, most people dismissed public access TV as worthless. I proved the world wrong, producing and directing ELECTRA ELF for five years, which was then released and distributed by MVD as a boxed set. No public access series has ever been considered good enough to save until ELECTRA ELF. The world continues to be wrong about everything while I keep making lasting contributions with no support.
Rail: Why did you choose art instead of something more practical?
Zedd: Making money has nothing to do with art. The worst artists are making the most money. The best artists are shunned, ignored and marginalized. Business artists are sell-outs and insignificant. They are not part of history.
Rail: Does Nick Zedd practice any form of spirituality?
Zedd: No. Metaphysics is nonsense.
Rail: Can we expect future Zedd work in Spanish?
Zedd: Si.
Rail: When will you return to NY?
Zedd: I’ll be in New York for a week in April, showing Mexican underground films at Anthology Film Archives on the 19th and 20thand a film by Dr. Fanatik at Microscope Gallery on the 22nd.
Rail: What advice would you give to emerging artists today, and particularly, what do you want Brooklyn to know?
Zedd: I don’t give advice. It’s invariably ignored. The people of Brooklyn should read The New Extremist Manifesto. It is not written for them, though. It’s written for every person in the world.
VIENNA BOA is a New York based operatic singer and performer.
He is simultaneously one of the world’s best and worst kept secrets. Shunned by establishment for his revolutionary work in cinema and art and honored by generations of admirers for the very same reason, legendary Nick Zedd relocated to Mexico in 2011 with his wife, where he is now a father and painter. He recently authored the Extremist Manifesto and continues to transfigure work in the spirit of transgression. Introducing Nick Zedd, the creator of Cinema of Transgression…
Vienna Boa (Rail): Why did you leave NYC?
Nick Zedd: I was fed up with accepting an existence in which I was periodically threatened by psychotic landlords, corporation council lawyers representing hostile parties, and a shrinking social scene passing for an art community corrupted by infighting, petty jealousy and rancid opportunism. Being surrounded by square people, yuppies, NYU scum and faux hipsters with money to burn, it was easy to become agoraphobic but the obscene expense of remaining there as an act of defiance while being ripped off by overpriced commodities and rent made no sense after I had a taste of Mexico City.
For the first time in my life I feel at home somewhere. I don’t have to pay a fortune to live in a tiny apartment with sporadic heat and hot water in the winter, where roaches and bedbugs flourish the way they do in NYC.
I don’t have to deal with borderline sociopaths mutated by the competitive job market and deeply conservative social values imposed upon them by the media, municipal government and commercial interests that oppress everyone in NYC. Likewise the rancid art establishment and entertainment industry in NYC, which offered me no support while rewarding mediocre artists adept at kissing ass, made me not miss anything when I left.
The better weather, food and diverse architecture of Mexico City must unfortunately be balanced against the fact that the art scene here is equally reactionary and suffused with people, especially ones with influence, money and power, who are chronic liars and corrupt to the core.
It’s somewhat difficult to accomplish collaborative work since many people here are unreliable, but fortunately since I am self-motivated and now producing my own paintings, that doesn’t matter so much. I’ve always believed in living dangerously, so moving to Mexico City made sense. Staying in one place too long can be stifling. That was definitely the case in NYC.
I reinvented myself when I moved to Mexico where I have no past and can’t be cursed by the ghosts of memories. Every day I live in the present. It’s very different from Manhattan where the future always seems more important than the present.
Rail: What do you find interesting about Mexico and how has Mexico inspired your creative process?
Zedd: The smells in the air, the wind moving the trees, the faces of the people, the tranquility and sense of peace, the feeling of being transported to another dimension, the illusion of a more caring environment. I feel less threatened and distracted here. In NYC I felt like a target, waiting to be betrayed or attacked. Betrayal takes a more deceptive and charming form in Mexico. To an expatriate like myself, Mexicans can seem even more dishonest than New Yorkers, where the hostility is more in your face.
I think I lost interest in humanity after living so long in NYC. People are different in Mexico: remote, yet not hostile. I’m rediscovering humanity here.
Here, my creative process is less influenced by other people. It’s more inwardly directed. In NYC, it was more influenced by the people I’d encounter, many of whom were recent transplants from other places. I was actually more inspired by a trip to Berlin last year, which reminded me of the feeling of NYC in the 90’s. I wrote a screenplay that I wanted to film there, but was rejected for funding by the reactionary cultural institutions in Berlin and Austria who I’d been assured would support me. As usual, I was considered radioactive: my ideas too subversive for the cretins dispensing the funds.
Rail: Why has your art been suppressed?
Zedd: I’ve been told it’s “too strong,” whatever that means.
Rail: Has your work found an audience in Mexico? What do they bring to the experience of creating politically relevant art as compared to the audience in NYC?
Zedd: Yes, on the rare occasions when I’ve circumvented the barriers erected by the backward gatekeepers who run things, initiating screenings and art shows in places like the Macabro Festival, where I DJd and showed movies in the Museo Britanico and in a shutterbug’s studio apartment where large numbers of people showed up and were electrified.
I have a huge untapped audience here, like in NYC. They’re starving for this stuff but the cretins in control are hiding it from them. It’s only on rare occasions that my work is seen, but every time it happens people are so grateful and enthusiastic since the norm is that safe pedestrian art that clogs the theaters and galleries like a backed up septic tank. We have to organize an alternative place to showcase this material…as usual it’s all about real estate and landlordism which, along with “good taste” is the enemy of art.
Rail: Are you finding any profound or superficial differences between the art establishments in Mexico and NYC?
Zedd: No. They’re both run by utterly clueless gatekeepers with no interest in breaking any rules, starting anything new or contributing anything of lasting significance. Today’s galleries and curators demonstrate daily that their sole function is to shuffle money around and tow the line by showcasing stuff that’s big and bland. These people and their supplicants shun innovation and danger.
Contemporary art is an exclusive club for people with money and nothing to say. It’s a secular religion that remains reactionary and indifferent to the lessons we’ve learned from history. They reject the concept of movements and creative vanguards as well as individual breakthroughs, embracing ironic indifference, a form of cowardice and evasion designed to cloak a compulsion to conform that is deeply ingrained in most participants in this fraud. The entire system of contemporary art needs to be destroyed which is what’s happening with the extremist art movement that’s replacing it. Anger is an energy they don’t understand. Curators and collectors don’t make history; artists do. Today’s best artists are being buried alive. The bland conceptual and business art favored by today’s museums and galleries represents a void that negates creative achievement and leaves us with nothing. It’s a fraud that will soon die of it’s own self-inflicted entropy and elitism. It represents everything that I hate.
Rail: What are you currently working on?
Zedd: Larger paintings and a fanzine I’m editing called Hatred of Capitalism which includes the Extremist Manifesto along with writing, photos and drawings by Mexicans I’ve met who have been quarantined from the contemporary art world for being too unconventional and threatening to the status quo.
Rail: In 2008 you began painting creatures that resemble human babies, but which have a distinctively alien quality to them. What do you call these creatures?
Zedd: I don’t believe in labels. I’m not here to spoon-feed. You might call them xenomorphic entities. Or you can call them anything you want.
Rail: Are they a metaphor for having your own child? Was painting them an exploratory process in which you developed your awareness of what it is to bring life into this world? Am I reading too far into this?
Zedd: That is actually a very insightful interpretation that might or might not be true. For the first time in this interview you have started to think.
Rail: What inspires your painting process?
Zedd: A desire to communicate with colors. It’s a process of discovery.
Rail: Do you set out with an intention to create a particular image or do you work intuitively?
Zedd: I don’t know where the things I paint come from. It can’t be explained.
Rail: What are you painting right now? And Why?
Zedd: I am painting larger canvases utilizing my own blood and cum. These liquids give the paintings magical properties that bring me success. The cum makes a spectral glaze. The red of the blood is stronger than any pigment you can buy. The paintings are a part of me now: not just my nervous system but also a product of my libido and life force. Next I'll incorporate piss and shit.
Rail: Approximately how long do you spend working on a painting before you feel it is ready to be shared with the public? What materials do you use? How do you know you are finished working on a piece?
Zedd: It might take a month or two weeks depending on the size or distractions in life. I can do one in a day or two if it’s smaller. I use oil, blood and cum on canvas. It’s finished when I feel like it.
Rail: What about filmmaking? Are you currently more interested in painting than in Cinema of Transgression?
Zedd: Until I get the money to do the feature film, I’m focusing on painting.
Rail: Why do you currently channel your creative process into painting, rather than film and television?
Zedd: It’s cheaper and doesn’t require unreliable collaborators with mental problems.
Rail: Regarding the creation of film I have read you comment that you would like to see "original ideas expressed by artists with conviction and style." That said, are real artists born or made? And further, what makes a real artist?
Zedd: I can’t generalize. You have to be obsessed to create.
Rail: How did it feel to have a festival of your work at Williamsburg's Glass House Gallery this past January?
Zedd: Ever so special.
Rail: What kind of people do you think connect with your work? What is it that they are seeking that you seem to provide and hit right on their target?
Zedd: They might be outsiders, truth seekers or misfits with a more refined sense of taste than the usual idiots conditioned by misinformation provided by today’s simulated life. But this is speculation.
Rail: Was there ever a "good" time to be an artist in NYC?
Zedd: When rents were affordable and there were jobs.
Rail: You found that New York public access television was a suitable medium for freely expressing your political and creative ideas. Does Mexico have public access television, and if so, would you consider launching another series similar or dissimilar to Electra Elf?
Zedd: Mexico does not have public access television. I tried selling Electra Elf to Televisa and they rejected it. TV is unwatchable in Mexico.
Rail: Is there an open mike scene in Mexico in which you care to take part? Have you become acquainted with Mexican cabaret?
Zedd: Like NYC, it’s dead. No open mike scene. I went to a Mexican cabaret once and walked out. It sucked.
Rail: How did it feel to receive an Acker Award this year for your achievement in avant-garde cinema? Do you identify as an avant-garde filmmaker and artist? Is there a difference between what you consider "avant garde" and "underground" art?
Zedd: It felt nice, though it would have felt better if I got paid something.
There’s no difference between the two terms. Why get hung up on semantics?
Rail: Please describe the custom clothing line that you and Monica Casanova have created. Where can we get it?
Zedd: We hand stitched patches with images from my movies onto t-shirts and hoodies, along with stenciled shapes and colors. No stores in NYC or elsewhere will sell them. They were for sale in one store for a month before being removed. As usual, if you do anything original it terrifies people so they have to get rid of it. Go to my website; you can still get a few thru the mail.
Rail: Please describe your multimedia work. Do you incorporate your previous works into live performances?
Zedd: Yeah, I run two movie projectors, a video projector, two turntables and a CD player. There’s nothing on earth like it. People beg for more, cheering and waving their fists. And then years go by before it happens again.
Rail: Have you ever performed live, sung, played an instrument, been in a band, or acted in theater? Have you ever been inspired to create music?
Zedd: I was in a noise unit called Zyklon B from 1999 to 2001. I did vocals. We put out a single called Consume Or Die on Rubric. We were the best band in New York. It didn’t last. I acted in a play called The Intruder by Maurice Maeterlinck in 2001.
Rail: What kind of music do you spin when you DJ? What sparked your interest in DJing?
Zedd: I spin the unexpected. I’ve been doing it for years, since the Art Space on Ridge Street got shut down by the cops. Most DJs are robots with no taste. It’s easy to be a DJ when you have a big record collection.
DJs who play off laptops are cheating. I saw a DJ in Mexico City talking on his cell phone while his assistant changed songs on his laptop. That’s not DJing.
When I DJ people dance. Imagine!
Rail: Did you ever think you'd have a family?
Zedd: No, I thought I’d continue being a loner…but then my priorities changed.
Rail: What ticks you off about people?
Zedd: Lies. Hypocrisy. Dumb questions.
Rail: What makes you love people?
Zedd: Honesty, loyalty, vulnerability, humor, a sense of wonder.
Rail: What do you value most from the experience of life?
Zedd: I value loyalty, friendship and love. That’s part of the challenge and process of discovery inherent in raising a child and in exploring new mediums like painting. The fact that most people consider painting to be dead just shows how utterly wrong they are (as usual.) Especially curators, museum directors and art critics. When I was making underground films, they were also considered dead and I proved them wrong. Likewise, most people dismissed public access TV as worthless. I proved the world wrong, producing and directing ELECTRA ELF for five years, which was then released and distributed by MVD as a boxed set. No public access series has ever been considered good enough to save until ELECTRA ELF. The world continues to be wrong about everything while I keep making lasting contributions with no support.
Rail: Why did you choose art instead of something more practical?
Zedd: Making money has nothing to do with art. The worst artists are making the most money. The best artists are shunned, ignored and marginalized. Business artists are sell-outs and insignificant. They are not part of history.
Rail: Does Nick Zedd practice any form of spirituality?
Zedd: No. Metaphysics is nonsense.
Rail: Can we expect future Zedd work in Spanish?
Zedd: Si.
Rail: When will you return to NY?
Zedd: I’ll be in New York for a week in April, showing Mexican underground films at Anthology Film Archives on the 19th and 20thand a film by Dr. Fanatik at Microscope Gallery on the 22nd.
Rail: What advice would you give to emerging artists today, and particularly, what do you want Brooklyn to know?
Zedd: I don’t give advice. It’s invariably ignored. The people of Brooklyn should read The New Extremist Manifesto. It is not written for them, though. It’s written for every person in the world.
VIENNA BOA is a New York based operatic singer and performer.