Jackson Zorn

That's What I Am
Graphite, Acrylic Paint
44" x 44"

This work titled That's What I Am by Jackson Zorn is part of a series dissecting the existence of "the self".

"I shall not soon forget the expression of horror on what was his
face, the dread, the extreme suffering, and the aggression. No, he was
not happy. Never have I seen a man so uncomfortable in his coffin"
-E.M. Cioran

The uncomfortable nature that the subject feels in the quote above is the same feeling
that rises upon viewing the That's What I Am, the viewer becomes anxiety ridden in
coming to terms with the information they are visually receiving.
Is the object human, is it animal, is it botanical, and is it cellular or a galaxy far far away?
The object truly is the self. The vessels are alien and yet somewhat familiar.
But Why?... they are proverbial because we carry their cousins with us every day.
Our skin is a purse for these dark dank innards of the human-animal,
dripping and stinking absent of any divine power.
The notion that we contain a mystical spark is dismantled upon accepting that
this less than transcendental character is only dread filled self-portrait of man.
We are not the chosen ones, there is no one to make the choice,
and we are equals to the soulless rotten beast that wander among us.
We exist in a void of direction. Aimlessly souring through anindefinite space labeled as "our universe".
Which is characterized by science as having an infinite beginning point and a point of no end.
Where and how do we place ourselves? We can only create an illusion for such answers.
The vessels depicted in these compositions are in the same position,
desperately trying to find a permanent home in a haze of uncertainty.
In this ambiguity, we can relate to the objects not only as slightly recognizable biology but
beings that are alone and uncomfortable, we exist in an indefinite space lost of any divine guidance.

I wish not to pervert the idea of man's divineness…, man has already done that himself.
I am only the re-animator, the surgeon, the geneticist, the splicer, and the care taker of the self.

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