Zissimage

Major Project - Eudaimonia

Eudaimonia derives from Greek words Eu – meaning good and daimon – meaning spirit within. This concept of good inner spirit, or feeling of wellbeing, is translated as happiness. Doing something one loves with passion.

Living in Melbourne during Covid19 has been extraordinarily challenging. The city experienced the longest lockdown in the whole world. Limitations have become an integral part of our daily live. Personal mortality and pandemic highlighted the awareness of how precious time really is. The importance of pursuit of Eudaimonia has become more important than ever before.

My focus shifted towards the simple things in life. I found new comfort in my immediate environment and an incredible source of positive energy from my two hour daily walks.

For me, Eudaimonia is a multidimensional and multisensory relationship that connects me to the natural and the immediate environment.

For someone, who has spent a lifetime struggling with identity and belonging, this connection means - home and happiness.

Perpetual Cycle book is Shortlisted in the 2022 Libris Awards: The Australian Artists’ Book Prize

The world is experiencing catastrophic natural events. People all around the world are becoming more and more aware of our role as responsible individuals in reducing our footprint on this earth. Revival, renewal and recycle - is a global movement that is gaining more and more traction and followers especially in the last decade.

For me, as a child of a Holocaust survivor, this has been the mantra and the philosophy of my life. Everything I create, be it an image, a book or wearable item, I always incorporate something that is no longer in use with the intention to give my new creation a new lease on life.

Perpetual Cycle is a circle book made out of a Pianola roll. It reminds me of the enormous joy playing the piano back in my childhood and the listening to one of my favourite mediative and haunting pieces of music - Canon in D by Pachelbel.

The book is encased in a box using some of the elements from the original Pianola roll box. The whole ensemble is placed in a wooden cigar box.

Home Elsewhere

As a Jewish woman growing in the diaspora thes search for Home is constant theme through my work.

In this exploration I am attempting to piece together a place of connectedness and belonging, a place to call Home.

In this body of work, I deal with the topics of identity, sexuality and in particular belonging, while looking through the lens of an immigrant and an openly gay person.

Architecture and Photography - Postcode in Sketch

As a photographer with an engineering background who's passion is Architecture my process of seeing architecture is to mentally strip the existing building of all its exterior layers and almost tap into my X-ray vision. So I could see the building in its beginnings and better understand the intentions of the architect.

An idea, a vision, a pencil and a blank sheet of paper, this is beginning of an artistic process. As someone who considers Architecture as an art form the sketch is the first step and the link between the imagination and the realisation of an idea.

So to take it back to where the magic begins I have reduced the captured images to a sketch.

Fine Art Print - Symbiosis Photobook

The word symbiosis comes from the Greek sym and bios, which translated means together and life, or life working together.

Nature is full of symbiotic relationships, such as the honey bee and the flower, the clownfish and anemone. For me Symbiosis is the harmony between the Natural Landscape and the Man-Made Architecture.

Performative Photography and The Body - Celebrating Milestone in Isolation

A devastating start of Biblical proportions to 2020 pushed the world into a lengthy self-isolation and a total lockdown. The global reaction was panic, despair and helplessness with no real sense of certainty when the world will go back to some form of normality. With plenty of questions and not enough answers from scientists and the delayed actions from the politicians the global humanity found some temporary spiritual comfort in their respective formal and informal religions. 

In the few weeks and months into this pandemic the global sentiment slowly started shifting from panic to creating new-constructed reality to cope with the horrific and constant stream of bad news.

This image is from a larger series of work where I am exploring the role of Masquerade and how it always provided me with safety, security and give me the courage to express myself under difficult circumstances. 

Midsumma Festival 2020 - Awakening

Awakening - the moments between temptation and fear. These moments are fragile, painful, terrifying, euphorically joyous and most of all rewarding. They are necessary emotional steps in search of a self-identity where temptation is the fearless driving force and the core ingredient.

In this body of work Zina is capturing the emotional turbulence of The Coming Out chapter of her life. This work offers an insight into her very personal experience in search of her own identity.

Awakening is part of ongoing and a larger body of work – aiming to explore a life long journey in search of identity, belonging and that elusive place call home.

Outcast

I am a second-generation holocaust survivor. I was borne in Ukraine, immigrated to Israel as a teenager and in my mid twenties moved to Australia with my young family. I spent most of my adult life searching for a place I could call home. No matter where I lived I always felt foreign, an outcast, someone who doesn’t belong anywhere and desperately trying to fit in, assimilate without loosing my identity. 

In this series I am exploring how does it feels to be an outcast. What lengths one has to go to be accepted. How does it feel to try and live up to unrealistic expectations of the immediate family and the community at large? How does it feel to be constantly on guard and aware of my accent, origin, nationality and appearance?

These images are reflections of some key events from my childhood and from my life in Israel.

Surreal Cinema

There are many similarities between movie theatre and places of worships. Not only in the physical layout but the experience and our expectations. 

We plunge ourselves into familiar darkness of the movie theatre, leave our problems and worries behind the doors just for a little while. Despite the fact that all of us, more or less, familiar with the script and are assured of the positive outcome and yet we keep on going back for more. 

The magical light from the silver screen in mesmerizing, cleansing and highly addictive.

These days there are no limits as to where we can enjoy watching our favorite TV show or a full length movie but there is something sacred about going to the movie theatre. Especially older highly decorative movie theatres where the drama and the action unfolds and extends far beyond the screen.