ERIC ZEIGLER
United States
underlying
Zeigler’s photography focuses on the pressures between representation and reality through the creation and dissemination of imagery. He creates photographic images that exploit the problematic contemporary western cultural categorizations and presumptions that are placed on photographic and lens-based imagery. He photographs the world and creates sculptures exclusively for photographing. Through these processes, he collects photographs that engage the viewer in the conceit and deceit of the image’s actual construction, while maintaining and utilizing well known methods of seductive image creation. The work questions the necessity of being in a place to photograph and understand it, and what the exploration of a place, or outer space, means to the contemporary world of photography. Is it real exploration if a human is not present in the space? Our seen version of the world has been simultaneously explored and photographed while we walk through it, and the photographs Zeigler makes reach into the previously unseen. The most current subjects for this work are dust-sized particles that have unexpected uses: sand from the beaches of Pozzuoli, Italy and fake Martian soil commissioned by NASA. The former was used to create Roman concrete, for which we do not have the exact recipe anymore; and the latter is dust from the Mojave desert, laced with chemicals to match the soil on Mars that allows NASA to test growing vegetables in the Martian soil before ever setting foot there.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Eric Zeigler is an American artist, designer, and researcher whose current work involves photography and unconventional transformation of images. He received an MFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute, and exhibits his work internationally. Recently, his work has been exhibited at the CICA Museum in Seoul, South Korea, and at the International Photography Symposium NIDA 2019 in Lithuania. Zeigler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Toledo. He created and runs the Art Print Center which serves as a hub for all digital artwork production by university students, faculty, and local artists.
