Collapse, rise

The City of Huntington Beach has a new creative mind to claim as its own, and he’s already making his mark on the Orange County art scene.

Amir Zaki, one of 30 artists on the bill at the Orange County Museum of Art’s 2006 California Biennial, always had an eye on architecture, although his interest in the subject has been birthed more from fantasy than documentary.

On Nov. 16, the UC Riverside professor will discuss the motive behind his work with guests at the museum. His exhibit, comprised of Los Angeles architecture, asks viewers to embrace the fantasy made possible when you tweak reality.

During an interview, Zaki pulled off the wall one of his photographs measuring almost 4 feet by and 5 feet, flipped the work 180 degrees, and then placed it back on the supports.

This should be done regularly to give the work its intended effect, Zaki said.

The repositioned image, a overlaying of the two photographs on the wall to the immediate right and left, takes the collapse of a modern building and flips it on its head and then squishing the two together.

View the effect online at the artist’s website, https://amirzaki.com.

The title “Despalloc” or collapsed spelled backward, gives light to his thematic intentions. The viewer gets a sense that something is just not quite right, Zaki said.

To get a better sense of this, check out the “Spring Through Winter” series, some of which is also on display for the biennial, particularly the stilted homes of Los Angeles.

In these images, the structures hang over a hilltop, the supports, present in reality, edited out on a computer in post production, by Zaki.

Done right, it can be better than reality, Zaki said.

When people see homes like this, the panoramic view would most likely be the focus, the 32-year-old photographer said. The impending fall of the home now takes the lead.

“The view is ideal,” he said. “But what does it look like underneath?”

Also in the series, images of tiled-over fireplaces and unused swimming pools are intended to unsettle the viewer. Hopefully they won’t just glance over the work, but will imagine what is the story behind it.

For Zaki, the narrative within ignited his interest in boarded up fireplaces.

Sometimes when people cremate loved ones they keep them, in an urn on the fireplace mantel, Zaki said.

The boarded up fireplaces, in form, resembled tombstones to the photographer.

What if they boarded up the ashes in the fireplace, he thought. It would be like the headstone, without the cemetery.

“People taxidermy their dogs and keep them,” Zaki said. “It’s not that far fetched.”

He was so into the idea for awhile, that he purchased the web domain, www.fireplaceburials.com. The website is no more.

A photograph may hang alone on a wall, but it is never alone in content.

Zaki’s art always comes packaged as a series, using, on average of 10-15 photographs, although the end come as much inspiration as does beginning the work.

“Sometimes it’s brought on by deadlines, but for the most part it’s pretty internal,” he said. “I keep adding until I get burnt out and feel it’s run its course.”

Some images just naturally become the period at the end of the sentence, Zaki Zaki often frequents the surf shops here in Huntington. Often, he rides the waves across from the intersection of Newland and Pacific Coast Highway, or somewhere along the shores of Bolsa Chica State Beach.

“Part of this is exciting, moving down here,” he said. “Why shouldn’t I get to move down to the beach?”

You may be living in, walking along or attending school at his next body of work, Zaki said.

The build of Moffet Elementary School recently caught his eye, as did the city’s central library.

And there are 29 other exhibits to encounter over the next two-and-a-half months at the museum in Newport Beach. Visit the website, www.ocma.net and get a look at all the activities planned with the artists.