· Biography->
o Zarrilli is a multi media artist who currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia. He has been taking photographs since childhood when his father gave him a Zeiss. In college, he took art history courses, but never thought that he was talented enough in addition to never meeting a working artist until adulthood when he fell into the art crowd. After college, Zarrilli became immersed in the music scene of Atlanta through his writing, radio shows, and managing both band and nightclubs, but the major breakthrough came with his involvement with a comedy troupe. Slowly his standup transformed into performance art. This new mode of work re-awoke Zarrilli’s interest in photography, and inspired him to buy new equipment, pick up courses, and in turn pick up darkroom skills. His recent work on his blog “Yard Sale Addict” inspired an installation, “A Year in the Yards of Clutter and the Driveways of Divestment” in 2006. At the time, he continues his study of “Makeshift Memorials”, the roadside memorials he finds in the U.S.’s Southeast.
· Why he influences my current body of work?
o I first became aware of Zarrilli when I found his body of work, “Makeshift Memorials” on the Southern Spaces blog in the article Crosses, Flowers, and Asphalt while follow up my interest in shooting roadside memorials. The images of the objects he found during his travels are beautiful documents of the shrines erected in response to the sudden death of a loved one. Although his aesthetic of selective coloring is not something I would utilize in my current work, the obvious care into framing and composition reflects the importance and fragile nature of these objects that transcend their materiality through their purpose and emotion being poured into it. Moreover his passion and discussions surrounding this body of work intrigued, and inspired me. From there I found “Yard Sale Addict Series” in which he document the objects put out for sale around his home in Atlanta, Ga. I felt akin to him in this search for objects that hold more than their physical presence, in both this work in addition to his memorial work. Though he searches with an eye towards sociology whereas I’m more interdisciplinary, we are both voyeurs in that we look for the glimpses of people left in their objects… their stories, energy, etc. I find that yard sales of all kinds are shrines in their own right… in a way creating a shrine of what they are ridding themselves of, not holding to themselves as I find in the cemetery.
o Lastly I found his installation work interesting. In particular the installation “A Year in the Yards of Clutter and the Driveways of Divestment” in which he took the objects purchased at these sales and filled multiple rooms in the Atlanta Contemporary Arts Museum most intriguing. The objects are transformed into an interactive mass that the viewers mold by rummaging through the objects, an action which always allows for personal discovery. I am often enthralled with work that requires physical interaction with the viewer as well as those that recreates an experience, in this instance a yard sale. I am thinking of utilizing these practices for the final installation of my senior thesis somehow. I don’t know for sure what I would mimic, but I have thought about juxtaposing the very personal nature of these shrines with the corporate entities that have become involved in spiritual practice for example funeral homes and new age supply stores.
· “I’m very much a voyeur in certain ways, and I very much want to see how people live in this house and in this neighborhood. For one, what they’re doing is this micro retail outlet in their yard, and they’re saying, “This is what I have. I actually use these things.” And there you see attempted and failed marriages and all kinds of personal details.” –Tom Zarrilli in False Magazine
· “I was always intrigued by random encounters with dramatic and disturbing visuals. I also viewed roadside memorials as a form of naïve art. People who erect them do so out of a sense of loss. They are personally created visual constructs made by people who would never normally make any sort of visual display. It’s interesting now that there are companies who create ready-made roadside memorials for those who feel their own crafts and styling is lacking. It’s like buying a store-decorated cake instead of making one yourself”- Tom Zarrilli in Furious Dreams Interview
· Artist Website: www.tomzarts.com and Blog “Yard Sale Addict”: http://yardsaleaddict.blogspot.com/
· Victoria Webb’s Interview with Zarilli for Furious Dreams Blog: http://www.furiousdreams.com/blog/?p=4170
· Jeremy Abernathy’s “Interview with Artist Tom Zarrilli” for False Magazine: http://falsemagazine.com/content/tom_zarilli.php
· There are no galleries that represent Zarrilli, but Culture Hall Online Resource of Contemporary Arts keeps his portfolio online: http://culturehall.com/artwork.html?page=3297
· Southern Space’s Article “Crosses, Flowers, and Asphalt: Roadside Memorials in the U.S. South” written by Claire Butler: http://southernspaces.org/2009/crosses-flowers-and-asphalt-roadside-memorials-us-south
