0:00:20.040,0:00:23.080 ["New York Close Up"] 0:00:45.220,0:00:48.840 ["Bryan Zanisnik Goes To The Meadowlands"] 0:00:50.860,0:00:51.960 [Meadowlands, New Jersey] 0:00:53.080,0:00:56.920 I love this idea of this landscape that's[br]constantly evolving 0:00:56.920,0:00:58.420 but also devolving. 0:00:59.900,0:01:03.980 A lot of the train lines have been ripped[br]apart by Hurricane Sandy. 0:01:03.980,0:01:09.440 So there's new areas of devastation on top[br]of other devastations. 0:01:11.060,0:01:11.660 [SOUND OF CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING] 0:01:12.780,0:01:13.280 [SOUND OF CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING] 0:01:14.960,0:01:15.460 [SOUND OF CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING] 0:01:19.440,0:01:20.000 [SOUND OF STAPLE GUN TRIGGERING] 0:01:23.940,0:01:26.000 I was photographing things I was finding[br]along the way 0:01:26.000,0:01:30.460 like these needles that were dumped from what[br]looks like a hospital. 0:01:30.890,0:01:35.390 Signpost markers from train lines. 0:01:36.030,0:01:40.190 And this here is this old operator's cabin[br]that was next to a turn bridge. 0:01:40.570,0:01:43.250 It was where the operator watched for trains[br]coming 0:01:43.250,0:01:45.830 and it's since been abandoned for many decades. 0:01:59.380,0:02:01.660 --But I'll just go this far anyway because it's[br]kind of ruined. 0:02:03.300,0:02:05.220 Looks like one of my installations, doesn't[br]it? 0:02:11.200,0:02:13.989 So that there in the distance is Snake Hill 0:02:13.989,0:02:18.070 and it's actually the only natural elevation[br]in the Meadowlands. 0:02:18.070,0:02:22.480 So it becomes this sort of strange emblem[br]of New Jersey. 0:02:22.480,0:02:25.739 In the nineteenth century, landscape painters[br]from all across the U.S. 0:02:25.739,0:02:26.850 would come to paint it 0:02:26.850,0:02:29.060 because it was considered one of the most[br]beautiful 0:02:29.060,0:02:31.100 rock out-croppings in the Northeast. 0:02:33.100,0:02:36.780 In the twentieth century, it was considered[br]one of the ugliest marks 0:02:36.790,0:02:38.489 on the New Jersey landscape. 0:02:41.300,0:02:44.100 [GPS NAVIGATION] "Turn right onto Meadowlands[br]Parkway." 0:02:47.620,0:02:51.140 The Meadowlands was always kind of this transitional[br]zone 0:02:51.140,0:02:53.670 between the suburbs and the city. 0:02:53.670,0:02:56.590 Like, you travel through it, but that was[br]it. 0:02:57.240,0:03:00.420 It just felt like this completely unchartered, 0:03:00.420,0:03:02.100 unknown territory. 0:03:03.730,0:03:05.610 I think of the Meadowlands as 0:03:05.610,0:03:07.950 the unconsciousness of New York City. 0:03:07.950,0:03:10.270 The unwanted, or the forgotten, 0:03:10.270,0:03:12.090 or the disgusted of Manhattan 0:03:12.090,0:03:13.570 comes here. 0:03:33.890,0:03:36.540 I was drawn by just this, like, endless curiosity[br]that 0:03:36.540,0:03:40.680 behind the next patch of reeds 0:03:40.680,0:03:42.400 there was something amazing. 0:03:43.420,0:03:44.640 Generally there wasn't, 0:03:44.640,0:03:46.060 and maybe that's also what really drew me: 0:03:46.060,0:03:48.020 That it's so much of the same thing 0:03:48.020,0:03:49.900 again and again and again. 0:03:50.410,0:03:53.700 It's kind of monumental in its nothingness. 0:04:07.560,0:04:10.360 [Brooklyn Museum] 0:04:24.480,0:04:25.720 See these are all the reeds. 0:04:26.020,0:04:27.340 That's why I collect reeds. 0:04:27.340,0:04:28.720 And they're everywhere. 0:04:36.520,0:04:39.180 I kind of think of building one my installations 0:04:39.190,0:04:42.270 as if I'm constructing a stream-of-consciousness sentence. 0:04:42.270,0:04:45.590 That not every word leads into the next, 0:04:45.590,0:04:46.870 but there's an overall mood 0:04:46.870,0:04:48.700 or feeling being constructed. 0:04:48.700,0:04:51.020 And in a similar way, I feel that exists out[br]here. 0:04:51.480,0:04:54.060 This landscape is very stream of consciousness[br]for me. 0:04:55.020,0:04:55.940 [SOUND OF STAPLE GUN TRIGGERING] 0:04:57.680,0:04:58.400 [SOUND OF STAPLE GUN TRIGGERING] 0:04:58.860,0:04:59.540 [SOUND OF STAPLE GUN TRIGGERING] 0:05:02.200,0:05:02.860 [SOUND OF STAPLE GUN TRIGGERING] 0:05:05.040,0:05:05.680 [SOUND OF STAPLE GUN TRIGGERING] 0:05:08.400,0:05:11.180 The way it dots from reeds, 0:05:11.780,0:05:12.700 to water, 0:05:12.960,0:05:14.260 to public, to private, 0:05:14.260,0:05:15.419 to polluted, 0:05:15.419,0:05:18.510 to gated, and preserved; 0:05:18.510,0:05:21.030 that it really just feels disconnected. 0:05:21.940,0:05:26.250 It's a landscape that just allows me entire[br]complete freedom. 0:05:26.250,0:05:31.200 That all the rules of civilization are discarded[br]here. 0:05:59.289,0:06:02.390 This idea of having this freedom to explore 0:06:03.300,0:06:05.120 I think is something I would want 0:06:05.680,0:06:08.240 people to gain out of my work, as well; 0:06:08.599,0:06:11.419 that, when you go see the piece at the Brooklyn Museum, 0:06:11.419,0:06:13.359 "Meadowlands Picaresque," 0:06:13.370,0:06:17.110 it's kind of the same play and exploration[br]I have out here. 0:06:17.110,0:06:21.089 I kind of fantasize that my viewer is having[br]a similar experience 0:06:21.580,0:06:24.240 walking through one of my installations. 0:06:43.880,0:06:48.140 I grew up in a place that was so suburban. 0:06:48.480,0:06:50.880 Everything was very familiar and chartered. 0:06:50.880,0:06:53.020 You know, all the houses had numbers 0:06:53.020,0:06:54.820 and were the same distance apart, 0:06:54.820,0:06:56.460 and there were only a few stores in town 0:06:56.460,0:06:57.810 and everyone knew what they were. 0:06:57.810,0:06:59.770 Everything was kind of defined. 0:06:59.770,0:07:03.760 And this felt like a place that no one ever[br]bothered to mark or map. 0:07:04.280,0:07:09.600 And I've always seeked out something a little[br]more undefinable. 0:07:14.900,0:07:19.300 When someone asks me if I still live in New Jersey, 0:07:19.450,0:07:21.790 I say, almost in embarrassment, 0:07:21.790,0:07:22.850 "Oh no, of course not." 0:07:23.500,0:07:24.720 "I live in New York City." 0:07:25.280,0:07:28.440 You know, and a big proud grin appears across[br]my face. 0:07:29.289,0:07:31.520 So then I think, "Oh, am I ashamed of New[br]Jersey?" 0:07:31.520,0:07:33.900 But then I go back here all the time 0:07:33.900,0:07:35.760 and make so much work about it, 0:07:35.760,0:07:36.560 so there's maybe... 0:07:36.560,0:07:38.040 maybe there's some... 0:07:38.380,0:07:39.380 ambivalence? 0:07:40.340,0:07:41.920 Because I think, "Well I love it," 0:07:41.920,0:07:43.500 "but I kind of hate it," 0:07:43.500,0:07:45.010 "and maybe I’d like to forget it..." 0:07:46.220,0:07:49.820 But I can't, because that's where I'm from. 0:07:52.110,0:07:53.830 No matter how many times I visit, 0:07:53.830,0:07:55.830 I never understand it completely. 0:07:57.709,0:08:00.129 And I may never understand it, 0:08:00.129,0:08:02.129 but that's what holds my attention.