Strabismus
Strabismus is a series of 100 looping video artworks by Sarah Zucker handcrafted on VHS Tape.
The series is being released through a ranked auction powered by Highlight, running 24 hours from May 1st through May 2nd, 2024. The work is being editioned on Ethereum.
You can view the art and bid in the auction at strabismus.xyz
STRABISMUS ARTIST STATEMENT
“That’s 3D Art. Computers generate ‘em. BIG computers.”
Cosmo Kramer, Seinfeld Season 6, Episode 6
I was born with a magic eye. Thanks to a condition known as “Strabismus,” my left eye marches very much to the beat of its own drum. You could say that it is “crossed,” but I like to think of it as a bit of a maverick.
Beyond a charming appearance, this has affected my vision my entire life. While most people perceive depth physically through the stereoscopic coordination of both eyes, I have adapted to calculate depth algorithmically in my mind. This often leads to double vision and the illusion of depth where there is none (and also causes me to bump into the furniture a lot when I’m tired).
Ironically, this made it impossible for me to perceive the images hidden in the “Magic Eye” series that became popular in my childhood (immortalized, of course, on a 1994 episode of Seinfeld.) The “unfocused” or “blurry” vision required to witness the illusion was my everyday reality, and I would give my tiny self a headache staring at those psychedelic color fields and willing them to take form.
It’s an experience that has stuck with me as I’ve developed my art practice working with computer graphics and analog video techniques. My new series, Strabismus, explores illusions of depth generated through digital video synthesis and analog time displacement.
Each work in the series aims to convey my own unique experience of depth – no crossed eyes required. I approached the creation of the work as a generative system, with my own personal optical algorithm and internal artistic feedback loop (a BIG computer) serving as the essential spice of randomness. The aesthetics emerged, no doubt, thanks to a year investigating and luxuriating in the work of Op Art pioneers like Bridget Riley, Yaacov Agam and Victor Vasarely.
This work evolved directly out of Temporale, my first long-form series editioned on the blockchain. Both projects distort the interlacing of analog video signal, where alternating bands of information yield motion. By directly manipulating this native aspect of the medium, I am able to weave together multiple timelines into a potent fusion of the temporal and the spatial.
Where Temporale channeled textural material video through this distortion to capture Time in a still image, Strabismus channels flat color motion through the distortion to conjure Depth out of Time.
I see each of these two series as independent yet undeniably related. I have always loved my own fluidity in moving between modes in my work, from the figurative to the abstract, the narrative to the expressionistic. But these two series reflect a new maturity, a desire to dig deeper and manifest my ideas on a greater scale than ever before. I remain as playful as ever, but am delighting in flexing my creative muscles.
Everything's Different Now
Nothing is as it has been or will be. The Present is a strange singularity.
EVERYTHING’S DIFFERENT NOW is a signature VideoThought crafted in my studio in summer 2022. I was commissioned by Friends With Benefits x OpenSea, and this vision came through the channels. The piece will debut in an IRL installation as part of The Flock at FWB Fest.
I’ve been creating artworks in my “Now” series since 2018, and see them as a chance to reflect on the flavor of the present moment. This leads to statements that are paradoxically both personally topical, and universally evergreen.
I’m struck by the cumulative effects of recent change. Dramatic shifts around digital art and NFTs, the end(?) of the Covid era, and a lot of personal growth as I’ve met the call to level up my art practice.
VideoThoughts are special little mindgems: they use video feedback to visualize the recursive nature of experience itself. Everything is *always* different now, which in turn makes the next now even more different, and so on and so forth.
This is the genesis token on my new VideoThoughts contract provided by Manifold. Like all my single editions moving forward, the piece will integrate with SuperRare and elsewhere for an elegant cross-platform collector experience.
Everything’s Different Now is now available on SuperRare.
Rhapsody in Hue
The bliss of all things moving in harmonious alignment. My favorite color has always been all of them all at once.
RHAPSODY IN HUE is a signature VideoFeeling crafted in my studio in 2021. It came together through a unique pairing of original video synthesis animation and video feedback technique with analog processing.
I have become increasingly aware of the nature of my VideoFeelings as a form of rhythmic sculpture that I create with light on videotape. They vibrate with tactility and possess a unique dimensionality despite being entirely incorporeal.
It’s no secret that I’m forever in love with rainbows. I have long said that my favorite color is all of them at once. Aside from their arrestingly beautiful aesthetic qualities they bear great mythological meaning. The rainbow signifies harmonious alignment and wholeness in both spiritual and scientific modes of thought.
I’ve been musing lately on the vibrant palettes I explore in my work, and how they’re only accessible through the RGB colorspace originated in Cathode Ray Tube Televisions. The emergence of NFT technology has encouraged widespread embrace and support for screen-based artworks in their natively luminous format without the need to dull their shine to fit into the material world.
This piece is a celebration of the dance we do between the physical and spirit realms as we wield our novel command of electric light.
RHAPSODY IN HUE was minted at 9am this morning as the genesis token on my new VideoFeelings contract provided by Manifold.
I’ll no longer be minting to the SR shared contract, which caps my existing 1/1s there. The use of my own contracts will allow for my ongoing series to exist as self-contained collections on OpenSea, while being aggregated seamlessly with my longstanding SuperRare profile. This should yield an optimized secondary market experience for my collectors – I’m quite dedicated to elegance, after all.
This piece will be making a special IRL emergence this month – more info on that when it can be revealed.
RHAPSODY IN HUE is now available on reserve auction on SuperRare.
PROMETHEA
Promethea – Open Edition Title Card
My new collection, “Promethea,” debuts on Nifty Gateway today at 6:30pm ET. I am immensely proud of the work, and the multi-layered meaning that channeled through me.
It is a story at once ancient and familiar: a musing on the mystical power technology has to lift us beyond the realm of the animal and into the divine.
The series – a triptych of VideoPaintings and a title card – is inspired by the myth of Prometheus. Regarded as the father of technology, his name means "foresight."
I love the old stories, because they remain widely accessible cultural touchstones. Their ubiquitousness allows much room for play.
My Promethea also plays with Fire – the OG technology. The advent of Fire marks the dawn of human civilization. It's the essence of catalysis – a liminal substance, both physical and incorporeal at once.
And yet, if not handled with expert care, Fire can burn down everything it helped to build. With great power comes great responsibility. But I feel much is made of this aspect lately – critique is the most facile form of expression, after all. And so, with my Promethea, I wish to lean into an unbridled vision of technology’s power for positive transformation.
Snatched – VideoPainting #1 from Promethea
In "Snatched", the 1st VideoPainting, I show Promethea as gaining access to the gods' reverie. Clever Promethea knows just where Zeus keeps his fire, and wastes no time in appropriating it.
Empowerment is self-bestowed upon those who do not fear to seize it.
Promethea’s Fire – VideoPainting #2 from Promethea
In "Promethea's Fire," the 2nd VideoPainting, our hero delights in wielding her will in the world. She brings back the fire to the human realm so that others may use it.
The great movements of progress are ignited by individuals acting out slivers of divine inspiration.
In the myth, much is made of the hero's suffering. The punishment for stealing fire is to be bound for eternity as an eagle eats his liver daily.
Such a drama queen!
I feel, in showing Promethea as a woman, the suffering is implied. We are, after all, bound to our bodies. Cyclical body horror is no stranger to us!
Unbound – VideoPainting #3 from Promethea
And so, in "Unbound," the final VideoPainting, I skip to my interpretation of a lesser told part of the myth.
This is a story of Techgnosis through personal revelation. The fire of the gods allows us to transcend the limits of our own bodies. We can become unbound!
There are layers hidden within the series. It's not my place to be prescriptive of your experience. I invite you to investigate them for yourself.
My hope is that curators will feel inspired to do their invaluable dance and place the work into context within its lineage.
"Promethea" was minted as erc721s on a standalone Manifold Studio contract (View the full collection on OpenSea), and will be sold through ranked auction and open edition on Nifty Gateway.
The ranked auctions start at 6:30pm ET and run to 8pm ET. The open edition is priced at $1370, and mints from 7-7:05pm ET.
View and Purchase the Promethea Title Card Open Edition here.
View and Bid on the Promethea Triptych Here.
The Light Witch
She shines her light into the darkness – among the shadows, images appear!
THE LIGHT WITCH is a signature VideoPainting I created in my studio in 2021. This is a self-portrait of an alter ego who has been a part of me for a long time.
I was born in December, the darkest month of the year. And yet, December is also the most festive time, as darkness provides a canvas for color and light.
The Light Witch embodies my unique gift for transmutation, and the call to project my rainbow visions into the world so that others may see them.
My “Electric Dream” on the SuperRare Monolith at Miami Art Week 2021
This gift is a form of magic, and I am its joyous channel. I creep around my cave doing a marvelous dance of image manifestation. I I I am the witch of the light!
The Light Witch was created with vintage Sony Video Painter, original animation and analog processing on VHS. Digitally transferred in 1080p, Single Edition. Minted on the Winter Solstice of 2021 – a pivotal moment in a pivotal year.
