Steven Vizena – “Cloud Zombies Visit the Museum”

September 21 - November 3.

Artist Steve Vizena has been dazzling neighbors and passers-by every Halloween for over a decade with his thought-provoking 3D assemblages in his garden at the corner of 11th and Garden streets. (He also dazzles passers-by with his ever-changing garden from early spring through late fall!) His goal isn’t merely to join his neighbors in the annual frenzy of Halloween decorations; rather, he enjoys engaging people in conversations about our engagement with and disengagement from the visual world around us.

The Museum has invited Vizena to create a display that captures the spirit of those art assemblages, and to bring his archived images of past Halloween creations, along with a display of some of his other visual art. His artwork is an exploration of what it means to fully engage our visual senses.  

Vizena’s “Cloud Zombies’ installation was inspired by his sensation of dodging zombies as he navigated through crowds of phone-mesmerized pedestrians on streets of Hoboken and New York. He worries about how the two-dimensional screens are affecting the way contemporary humans connect to the world, how we perceive our visual world and the reality we experience. 

“The Halloween installations are meant to suggest ideas, not show a particular idea, but to stimulate you to have your own experience and your own ideas,” Vizena explains. “It’s meant to engage your eye, with color and design, and seem plausible, with natural references, in a way that connects to something in your visual world.”

What he enjoys the most about his installations are the conversations they generate with neighbors and passers-by. “My goal is to make people aware of how to experience the world around them using their own eyes and visual cortex,” he says.

Vizena melds a scientific and creative approach in his art. It’s no surprise that he had planned to study medicine when he went to Michigan State University, but found himself more fascinated with how creating art stimulates the mind.

“Art is philosophy, sociology, cultural concepts,” he learned. “Artists are trying to communicate how they see the world: How we see the world and ourselves in it and how we experience life.” He quickly dove into art as his major and profession, where he learned that “you have to exercise your capacity to see. You have to learn to see well. And then also to learn how to use your hands to share your experience.”

So Vizena brings a deep understanding of the physical and neurological underpinnings of how we see to the process of creating his artwork. He deliberately manipulates all the elements that the eye can detect uses colors, shapes, edges, depth of field, and continuity to stimulate the mind of the viewer.  

Through his art, Vizena tries to create a stimulating visual experience, one that engages viewers and draws the eye in to linger and investigate, using patterns from nature and algorithms. The neurological connections in the brain depend on stimulation, just like muscles need a variety of different movements to properly develop.

He worries about how spending so much time with two-dimensional screens will affect the development visual cortex. His fascination with the growing influence of screens on society is what inspired his “Cloud Zombies” series around Halloween, after initially creating a giant spiderweb that stretched from his home to a large tree and gate, complete with giant spider.

In 2012, he took “Cloud Zombies” to the ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a large public art show with winners selected by public voting.  Ironically, he says, “most visitors simply snapped a quick image with their phones and moved on, without realizing the Art was about what they had just done – substituting a photograph, made possible with technology advances in phone cameras, for actual experience, engagement and comprehension of what was before them.”

Prepare to have your eyes and mind opened — watch an interview by Sarah Jackson with the artist about “Cloud Zombies Visit the Museum: An Assemblage Connecting Art, Halloween and Community.” 

The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.