1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:02,659 [BRYAN ZANISNIK] I'm ready to go... 2 00:00:02,660 --> 00:00:03,640 [MAN, OFF-CAMERA] You ready to go? Okay. 3 00:00:03,640 --> 00:00:04,920 [ZANISNIK] I mean, if you want, whatever. 4 00:00:05,020 --> 00:00:06,920 I was teaching at a SUNY college, 5 00:00:06,920 --> 00:00:08,380 right outside of New York City. 6 00:00:08,390 --> 00:00:10,360 And there's a student who never showed up. 7 00:00:10,360 --> 00:00:11,100 No big deal. 8 00:00:11,100 --> 00:00:13,220 He shows up in my afternoon class, 9 00:00:13,220 --> 00:00:15,340 and he's like, "I just need you to sign this form," 10 00:00:15,349 --> 00:00:18,320 "to say that you're going to allow me to drop the class." 11 00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:20,150 And I said, "Yeah, you haven't been here all semester," 12 00:00:20,150 --> 00:00:22,230 "I'm not going to drop you on the last day." 13 00:00:22,230 --> 00:00:23,430 "You failed my class." 14 00:00:23,430 --> 00:00:25,210 And he says, "Sign the form." 15 00:00:25,210 --> 00:00:26,400 I said to him, like, 16 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:27,590 "This isn't even your class." 17 00:00:27,590 --> 00:00:28,590 "I'm teaching." 18 00:00:28,590 --> 00:00:30,810 So there's like twenty students watching this. 19 00:00:30,810 --> 00:00:32,590 Then he gets in my face more. 20 00:00:32,590 --> 00:00:34,860 So at some moment I had to stand up, 21 00:00:34,860 --> 00:00:36,550 and he chest bumps me. 22 00:00:36,550 --> 00:00:38,800 He throws me into the wall 23 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:41,020 and he's like, "Sign the damn form!" 24 00:00:41,020 --> 00:00:42,430 So he does one of these... 25 00:00:42,430 --> 00:00:45,469 and knocks everything off my desk. 26 00:00:45,469 --> 00:00:47,579 And he's like, "You're not a real teacher!" 27 00:00:47,580 --> 00:00:49,060 "You're an art teacher!" 28 00:00:49,060 --> 00:00:49,860 "You all suck!" 29 00:00:49,860 --> 00:00:51,120 "Art sucks!" 30 00:00:52,020 --> 00:00:52,820 I failed him. 31 00:00:52,820 --> 00:00:53,560 I failed the student. 32 00:00:54,460 --> 00:00:57,300 ["Bryan Zanisnik's Big Pivot"] 33 00:00:58,140 --> 00:01:01,880 I think that there was maybe some fantasy 34 00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:03,760 of being an artist in New York. 35 00:01:05,580 --> 00:01:08,180 To some degree, I feel that I'm living that fantasy. 36 00:01:10,020 --> 00:01:12,280 I get to make my work every day. 37 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:13,820 Get to work with amazing people, 38 00:01:13,820 --> 00:01:15,000 amazing institutions. 39 00:01:15,380 --> 00:01:16,460 But on the other hand, 40 00:01:16,460 --> 00:01:18,580 I think a reality of having a practice 41 00:01:18,590 --> 00:01:20,289 and being in New York 42 00:01:20,289 --> 00:01:22,100 doesn't always meet up to one's expectation. 43 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:26,939 It's really on the artist to 44 00:01:26,939 --> 00:01:28,459 produce the work, 45 00:01:28,459 --> 00:01:29,670 fund it. 46 00:01:29,670 --> 00:01:32,719 You just give everything to be an artist 47 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:34,680 and you don't worry about financials. 48 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:43,240 I would do projects where I would collect thousands of objects. 49 00:01:43,249 --> 00:01:46,139 I would arrange them, photograph them, 50 00:01:46,140 --> 00:01:47,860 move them, build an installation. 51 00:01:49,220 --> 00:01:51,060 I like this idea of animism-- 52 00:01:51,060 --> 00:01:54,619 that an inanimate object has spirit 53 00:01:54,620 --> 00:01:56,600 or personality. 54 00:01:57,260 --> 00:01:59,180 I think I was really drawn to 55 00:01:59,180 --> 00:02:00,840 the mystery 56 00:02:00,840 --> 00:02:04,640 or the adventure around acquiring these objects. 57 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:10,840 It's very easy in the art world to look like you've made it, 58 00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:13,380 and you really haven't at all. 59 00:02:13,380 --> 00:02:17,040 I mean, you can have so much institutional support, 60 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:20,220 but there's very little monetary gain from that. 61 00:02:21,640 --> 00:02:24,420 I remember I had a show with a gallery, 62 00:02:24,420 --> 00:02:26,030 and I did this huge installation. 63 00:02:26,030 --> 00:02:27,440 I started making these sculptures. 64 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:30,460 There were these tall columns that objects were embedded in. 65 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:33,579 If I sell them, we just turn them on the side, 66 00:02:33,580 --> 00:02:35,480 send them off to whoever wants them. 67 00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:36,360 Write me the check, 68 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:37,540 you can have these damn columns. 69 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:40,580 I start building them, 70 00:02:40,599 --> 00:02:42,770 the fabrication crew meets with me 71 00:02:42,770 --> 00:02:43,980 and they're like, "We have a problem." 72 00:02:43,980 --> 00:02:44,820 And I was like, "What?" 73 00:02:44,820 --> 00:02:46,180 They're like, "We're worried your column" 74 00:02:46,180 --> 00:02:48,240 "is going to fall" 75 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:49,560 "and kill someone." 76 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:52,940 So I was like, "Alright, what's the solution?" 77 00:02:52,940 --> 00:02:53,620 They're like, 78 00:02:53,620 --> 00:02:57,000 "We need to bolt the bottoms into the concrete ground." 79 00:02:57,000 --> 00:02:59,700 I was like, "How do we get those bolts out when we're done?" 80 00:02:59,700 --> 00:03:00,840 They're like, "Oh, we just destroy it." 81 00:03:01,640 --> 00:03:02,520 So I was like, 82 00:03:02,530 --> 00:03:05,569 "Oh man, there go my columns I can sell." 83 00:03:05,569 --> 00:03:07,400 "I have to destroy them." 84 00:03:08,640 --> 00:03:12,260 I really wanted to take a step back from what I was making 85 00:03:12,260 --> 00:03:14,579 to really be able to reinvent a new direction. 86 00:03:14,580 --> 00:03:15,680 I needed a break. 87 00:03:20,020 --> 00:03:22,040 I remember when I told people, "I'm going to Sweden," 88 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:24,780 they said, "Now you have made it!" 89 00:03:25,580 --> 00:03:27,080 Sweden, the promised land. 90 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:30,079 The place where there aren't any financial concerns. 91 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:32,340 You don't have to worry about having health care. 92 00:03:33,180 --> 00:03:34,580 You will arrive, 93 00:03:34,580 --> 00:03:37,240 and then you can have, like, thirty exhibitions. 94 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:41,420 The problem I ran up against is I don't speak any Swedish. 95 00:03:41,420 --> 00:03:42,999 So when I went down to be like, 96 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:45,040 "I'm an artist, give me your free money," 97 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:46,480 they're just like, 98 00:03:46,480 --> 00:03:49,060 "Okay, here's thirty forms in Swedish." 99 00:03:49,060 --> 00:03:49,980 "Good luck." 100 00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:56,200 I was really drawn to this aspect of Sweden 101 00:03:56,200 --> 00:04:01,660 where one's career wasn't so closely tied to one's identity. 102 00:04:04,960 --> 00:04:10,320 So I started engaging in a lot of the activities that are typically Swedish. 103 00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:16,060 Obviously hiking is a big thing, 104 00:04:16,070 --> 00:04:18,440 but in particular, mushroom foraging, 105 00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:19,960 and learning mushroom identity. 106 00:04:20,380 --> 00:04:22,620 I remember one time riding the bus back 107 00:04:22,620 --> 00:04:24,780 from the national park to the city, 108 00:04:24,780 --> 00:04:26,540 and there were forty people on the bus, 109 00:04:26,540 --> 00:04:30,580 and every person was comparing their mushrooms that they found that day. 110 00:04:32,380 --> 00:04:34,820 New York, everyone wants to cut to the chase, right? 111 00:04:34,830 --> 00:04:35,830 You go out, you meet someone, 112 00:04:35,830 --> 00:04:37,110 they're like, "What do you do?" 113 00:04:37,110 --> 00:04:39,419 Then the questions come without directly asking it. 114 00:04:39,419 --> 00:04:41,870 "How successful are you at what you do?" 115 00:04:41,870 --> 00:04:45,040 Like, "Are you someone I want to know or should know?" 116 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:47,800 But in Sweden you go out and people say, 117 00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:49,920 "Which is your favorite pastry?" 118 00:04:52,740 --> 00:04:54,480 That to me feels natural. 119 00:04:54,490 --> 00:04:55,770 But in our culture today, 120 00:04:55,770 --> 00:04:58,550 if you're not Instagramming every week-- 121 00:04:58,550 --> 00:04:59,550 what you're working on, 122 00:04:59,550 --> 00:05:00,550 where you're going, 123 00:05:00,550 --> 00:05:01,360 what you're doing in the studio-- 124 00:05:02,220 --> 00:05:03,620 people, especially in New York, say, 125 00:05:03,620 --> 00:05:05,860 "Oh, he or she no longer makes art." 126 00:05:07,160 --> 00:05:11,240 But I think the best way to manage that is to look inwards. 127 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:15,320 Do we make our lives more difficult than they have to be? 128 00:05:15,330 --> 00:05:17,150 I think maybe there's a question of: 129 00:05:17,150 --> 00:05:19,980 if something comes too easy, 130 00:05:19,980 --> 00:05:21,540 or too joyful, 131 00:05:22,400 --> 00:05:24,340 is that as successful of a work? 132 00:05:32,360 --> 00:05:34,180 I've begun a new body of work. 133 00:05:35,740 --> 00:05:37,840 I'm using a painterly process. 134 00:05:38,880 --> 00:05:42,760 I'm really thinking a lot about joy in my work, 135 00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:44,400 and what makes me happy. 136 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:46,860 There's a stillness. 137 00:05:48,140 --> 00:05:50,280 I'm just kind of sitting in one place 138 00:05:50,280 --> 00:05:53,720 and repeating an action with my hand. 139 00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:56,840 I think, as much as I'm describing that as a physical stillness, 140 00:05:56,840 --> 00:06:01,060 there's maybe also a relaxed mental stillness there too. 141 00:06:03,660 --> 00:06:05,400 This new body of work I make, 142 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:06,500 maybe people don't like it. 143 00:06:06,500 --> 00:06:07,340 Maybe people say, 144 00:06:07,340 --> 00:06:09,380 "Oh, Bryan's not a nervous wreck anymore." 145 00:06:09,390 --> 00:06:10,830 "He's not torturing himself." 146 00:06:10,830 --> 00:06:15,970 "He's not lugging five thousand subway tiles across the country." 147 00:06:15,970 --> 00:06:18,319 Maybe there's also, with age, 148 00:06:18,319 --> 00:06:22,350 a little more confidence to make something that I really love making, 149 00:06:22,350 --> 00:06:25,120 and then maybe not worry so much about the reception of it. 150 00:06:26,860 --> 00:06:30,120 I think I've gotten to a point where, if I don't have opportunities, 151 00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:31,580 I'll still make that art, 152 00:06:31,580 --> 00:06:34,500 and I'll just become the crazy man in the woods, 153 00:06:34,500 --> 00:06:35,500 who, like... 154 00:06:35,500 --> 00:06:37,310 I just yell at people to get off my property. 155 00:06:37,310 --> 00:06:38,600 And they're like, "Oh, he's an artist." 156 00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:40,620 "He once had an Art21," 157 00:06:40,620 --> 00:06:44,000 "now he's just a hermit in that shack out there." 158 00:06:46,280 --> 00:06:48,639 I would run into this experience again and again 159 00:06:48,639 --> 00:06:50,080 where I would meet someone 160 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:51,130 and they would say, 161 00:06:51,130 --> 00:06:52,580 "Midsummer is coming," 162 00:06:52,580 --> 00:06:53,580 a huge Swedish holiday. 163 00:06:53,580 --> 00:06:54,580 And I'd say, "Oh, I know." 164 00:06:54,580 --> 00:06:56,250 They'd go, "Crazy party." 165 00:06:56,250 --> 00:06:57,660 "We go into the woods." 166 00:06:57,660 --> 00:06:58,919 "We all get naked and run around," 167 00:06:58,919 --> 00:07:01,240 "and we drink and we dance." 168 00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:03,939 "People, they dress as elephants and dance." 169 00:07:04,580 --> 00:07:05,780 And I was like, "Wow." 170 00:07:05,780 --> 00:07:08,939 And the person says, "I'm having one of these parties this weekend." 171 00:07:08,939 --> 00:07:10,949 I'm like, "Oh, I'm not doing anything this weekend." 172 00:07:10,949 --> 00:07:11,600 They go, 173 00:07:11,600 --> 00:07:14,460 "Well you really have to find one of these parties to be invited to then." 174 00:07:14,460 --> 00:07:16,040 They'd be like, "Have a good day!"