Zatorski + Zatorski are collaborative artists and life partners working in lens-based media, installation, sculpture and performance. They trained at Scottish art schools in drawing and painting, currently live in London and have exhibited widely, abroad and in the UK, including Tate Britain, Royal Academy, Whitechapel Gallery and the National Gallery of Scotland.
Drawing from the surrealist fascination with dreams and the unconscious mind, the artists often create carefully staged settings into which they juxtapose potent archetypal symbols or motifs and then observe as actions and ideas are left free to present themselves: the stories unscripted and narratives self–generating.
Z+Z are preoccupied with notions of mortality, belief and the soul. A fascination with transience and collective belief systems led to residencies in sacred spaces, including Durham Cathedral. Following this they restored a 19th century historic 100ft Dutch sailing ship De Walvisch (The whale) in which they live and work. Z+Z’s over two decades of collaborative practice can be fairly neatly spliced into a pre and post De Walvisch.
Z+Z consider De Walvisch a constantly evolving art installation that they inhabit and into which they construct real and imagined situations and settings from which they make art, amongst which they hold their Salons*. Objects from their collections aboard become props or players in their work and are then absorbed back into the fabric of the ship*, adding to the radiation of ideas.
* The Salons are curated dinners of up to fifty with performances and art installed in and around the ship, to which Z+Z invite diverse protagonists from the worlds of art, music, science, literature, media, engineering and academia. Z+Z introduce everyone to everyone individually at the table and they consider it a Relational Aesthetics experiment; guests become Salon members and in turn nominate future participants. Z+Z first started the Salon at their Hoxton square studio in 2007.
*Born of the collaborative nature of sailing a ship, in 2013 Zatorski + Zatorski founded the not-for-profit production company The Cultureship to produce, commission and curate high-impact artworks with a maritime context. This lead to Z+Z curating the Thames Festival, performing as part the Diamond Jubilee celebrations and producing a major artwork for the Whitstable Biennale.
Zatorski + Zatorski can be reached here:
mail at zatorskiandzatorski dot com
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