ZAC BAXTER

Mix Media Artist

I am currently studying in my second year of BA Fine Art at UCLan. Throughout the course so far I have enjoyed the freedom to experiment with a new variety of mediums and being able to push the limits of what I can achieve in my work.

The time stuck in lockdown has however been challenging and restricting for the type of work that I want to create. Therefore I have pushed to move my work to a digital medium to adapt to the current situation.

The work that I am displaying here has become a response or outcry with wanting to return to normality and explore the outside world once more. This work has also been motivated by my deep interest in history and the strange and stupid acts of man when exploring the world.

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Zac Baxter: TeamMember

What theme are you exploring in the piece/s you have exhibited?

I am looking into exploration and colonisation throughout history. More specifically the failures of explorers and ridiculousness of some of the goals they tried to achieve. My work also delves into how the lockdown has restricted my ability to explore and has made the mundane ventures outside a potential adventure.

What are your inspirations behind the piece?

Looking at history the explorers captain Scott and John Franklin both stand out as inspirations mostly due to the fact that they both failed in some way at achieving their goal of exploration. My fictional character in particularly similar to Franklin as they both share a bloated ego and seemingly impossible goal. War propaganda and photos from the Endurance’s entrapment in ice were also a key inspiration when editing my photographs.

Which artists influence you and your work?

Bas Jan Ader was my most significant influence with his series of ‘failing’ captured by video and his last piece an overambitious voyage across the Atlantic that ultimately ended in his death. His work manages to achieve a balance of humour and misery becoming a kind of black comedy. This is what I have strived to replicate in my own project.

Which medium/s have you used and why?

I have used extremely simple beams of wood to create the boat. This was the first material that I had to hand and it allowed me to create a boat that seems ‘floatable’ and yet it’s extremely questionable. The rest of my work is digital mainly due to the restrictions of lockdown however it’s given me the chance to explore ideas of propaganda and photo manipulation.

What impact do you want to make on the audience?

I honestly just want to make the audience puzzled at the stupidity of my project, as well as make them question why they hold past explorers at such a high standard. I also just want to share my love of history and the odd little moments throughout that make you laugh and thank god that you’re not freezing to death in Antarctica trying to find a route that makes your country richer and more of a global superpower.

Zac Baxter: Text