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.

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

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.

THE LIGHT WITCH was minted on SuperRare at 1pm ET / 10am PT on December 21, 2021. 

It’s on Reserve Auction starting at 12Ξ. Click here to bid or view the token.

You Can Save This

Mimesis is the means by which culture flourishes!

2021 has been one of the most extraordinary years of my life. I’ve been a working artist for over a decade, largely without reward beyond the satisfaction of answering the call for expression within myself. This year, a confluence of events has led to my work being recognized on increasingly grand stages. 

Not only am I grateful, but I am undeniably changed by the experience. I have spent this time steeped in the culture of our burgeoning community, as well as witnessing the pushback from those outside of it.

It’s only fitting, then, that I would end the year by debuting an artwork borne out of this feedback loop at Art Basel Miami – on my birthday, no less. 

“You Can Save This” is a signature VideoThought – a statement with an open-ended context, visually manifested so as to allow for meaning to blossom.

I feel that one of my gifts as an artist is the ability to take ugly sentiments and transmute them into works that are transcendent and meaningful.

“You Can Save This” has become one of the rallying cries of those who reject NFTs. They believe that the ability to save and share our artwork is somehow proof that it does not hold value.

And yet, we who prize incorporeal art know that the ability to save and share it is a feature, and not a flaw. Its ability to network itself and spread is the very aspect which makes it valuable. We have a word for this, which we use also to describe the web-building tendencies of mycelium in the forest, or micro-organisms in a petri dish. 

We call this “culture.”

And so, with this piece, I seek to alchemize this critique into a badge of honor. What we are doing here is a direct evolution of the human culture which has led us to this point. We are laying the groundwork for a new networked humanity.

As with most of my VideoThoughts, there are multiple interpretations. I don’t wish to squash the viewers’ experience by being overly prescriptive, but I do want to speak to an additional personal viewpoint. 

Much has been made of the rapid growth of the NFT space, and its inevitable correlation with speculative finance. My feeling is that this will sort itself out, as it always does. My great hope, and intention, is that NFTs serve as a Trojan Horse, allowing for new digitally-native forms and voices to permeate mainstream consciousness. 

The fiscal elevation of the artist class that we are experiencing is analogous to that of both the Renaissance and the Zombie Formalist movement – we get to determine whether we develop these markets around our aesthetics, or if we develop our aesthetics around the markets. 

Ideally, the relationship between the collectors and the artists is one of glorious symbiosis – each plays a crucial role in the endeavor of the other. We risk losing the greater cultural meaning of this movement if we allow this dynamic to become unbalanced and favor only the desire for “number go up.” 

And so, I see this piece as being both a statement of fact as well as a plea – You Can Save This. Decentralization affords us a degree of agency that’s new to us – we must reckon with the power of our will, and wield it with great responsibility.

The use of video feedback as a visual motif is central here, as it reflects the delicate paradox of intention we are all dancing with as we establish the nascent Metaverse.

I created this work in a rare 9:16 ratio specifically designed for IRL display. It will debut at The Gateway, the first large-scale presentation of Crypto Art at Art Basel Miami from NFTNow x Christie’s. 

I was curated into the show by SuperRare, my OG and still most-used Crypto Art platform. I am putting the work on reserve auction there on December 2nd. Bids can be placed here.

YOU CAN SAVE THIS was minted on SuperRare on November 30th. It is on Reserve Auction as of December 2nd at 10am ET. Reserve is set at 12Ξ.