David Zukas

Paintings- mixed media

SOLDI literally burned Renaissance and Phoenix Rising to ashes. On top of which I painted my vision for the future of Haiti. The profiled sentinels (composed of sankofa, the adinkra symbol) are guarding the akwaaba doll (composed of a cast of my protege, Trumaine Simpson) or the symbol for life.
  
SOLDNearly every culture has some version of the mythological Phoenix. The Phoenix creates new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor. There is hope for Haiti.
   
This door was inspired by Alberto Giacometti's existentialist post war sculptures. I intended to capture the haunting gangly yet enduring shadow like figure that Giacometti portrayed.
     
  
All art work is more than an expression of an image, more than color and beauty, it is poetry and energy in movement, that interacts with the person who contemplates and connects us with the Universal Order. Meditation is a journey inward. Whether we know it or not, all of us have meditated before. Maybe not in the eastern Yogic sense, but we have all silenced the mind perhaps by listening to gentle music, lying on the beach, or immersing ourselves in the stillness of a hobby. Art and meditation come from the same inner source.
  
SOLD Commissioned piece- this was an obvious play on the word "King." I was asked to paint a portrait of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. so I imagined him being canonized as a true King of kings.
   
Assemblage sculpture made up of recycled tools of the art trade: brushes, canvas, paint tubes, books and containers.
     
  
SOLD Teaching in Brownsville in Brooklyn has inspired me to re-read my Saul Williams collection and make this homage to him. While Chuck Close was exhibiting for the first time at MoMA in Manhattan, something equally as special was rising in the Fort Greene area in Brooklyn. Saul and many others inspired us all and made Brooklyn a vibrant scene. Saul Williams will be performing at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Feb. 17. Go see the prophet.
   
For many religion is a necessity. Science and nature are my only truth.When I first met my wife, she gave me Daniel Kedar's book, "Haiti: Reflections." I am eternally grateful to him for introducing her homeland to me. Faith and Truth and Adrift are inspired by his photographs.
   
I lived without running water and electricity in Ghana. Despite extreme difficulties in the so called third world, there is a beauty in the simplicity of life.When I first met my wife, she gave me Daniel Kedar's book, "Haiti: Reflections." I am eternally grateful to him for introducing her homeland to me. Faith and Truth and Adrift are inspired by his photographs.
     
  
I am intrigued by the human body becoming landscape and landscape reminding me of the human body.
   
Free doom or freedom? Nothing worthwhile can be gained without suffering. Nobody suffers like the poor in the struggle to be free.Freedoom was inspired by Maderno's Saint Cecilia sculpture in marble in Trastevere, Rome.
  
Everyone's looking for a way out or a way in. This door creates worlds within worlds and alternate realities.
     
  
As hard as you, me, or anyone has it in this economy spiraling out of control, just remember you are not dependent on a tarp for a home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
  
I love hip hop. I love that my generation gave birth to a new genre of music. Having said that, if you can only rap about cars, clothes and jewelry then you are a slave to materialism. Your ancestors were bought and sold as material possessions and all you can rap about are material possessions. Who has the bigger chain?
   
New emigrants to the U$ leave behind valuable pieces of their culture in order to assimilate. I created a Ghanaian akwaaba doll out of scrap materials (muffler, trash can lid, pvc pipe, tin can). An akwaaba doll represents ideal beauty and welcomes a new child into this world. The culture of America, unfortunately, is based on material possessions as represented with the iconic French pattern. The leather whip as a penis speaks to the original West Africans who had their culture forcibly removed.
     
  
In Ave Dakpa, Ghana, I witnessed a man fall to the ground, go into a trance and have his eyes roll back into his head during a ceremony.
  
My wife is not a resident of this country. We have two beautiful children born on this soil. She, along with countless others, are not burdens to our society. Quite the contrary, they are part of the fabric that makes this nation potentially great. A line drawn in blood separates the haves from the have nots.
   
In 2009 the Pope travelled to sub Saharan West Africa and denounced the use of condoms. He only rides bareback in a region where an estimated 20% are living with HIV.
     
  
Along the way to becoming the first free black nation Haiti defeated three imperial powers: France, Spain and Great Britain.
   
Immigrants seem to be easy targets when times are rough in the U$. According to the Census Bureau only 1% of the 300 million people in the United States are Native American. This means 99% of us have forbears that were emigrants (either forcibly or by choice) to the United States. Almost all of us have this legacy in our lineage yet we are unable to identify with others currently going through this plight.
  
SOLDAll artists are fertile and creators of life. The shirt was soaked in resin and formed in a cast of my wife’s pregnant torso. A Haitian woman bringing life into this uncertain world is also surely symbolic of the potential rebirth of Port-au-Prince and Haiti after the recent earthquakes.
     
  
Our ultimate demise may be the inability to identify with others. If we wait to act until we are the ones affected, it will be too late. Many in Haiti and around the world are rightfully questioning their faith.
   
SOLDAnnuit Coeptis or Providence in Favor of Our Cause.Is God on America's side in the endeavor to give money for rebuilding Haiti? Is God on Haiti's side? Do we only give money to make ourselves feel better? What did your text of $10 actually do? Will you still care about the plight of Haiti 6 months or 6 years from now?
   
SOLDHaitians are without a home. Their ancestors were stolen from Africa and brought to Haiti where they were forced to work cane fields as slaves. The island of Hispianola is not their home. Many have immigrated to the U$ where they have been treated as second class citizens. The U$ is not their home. If they returned to Africa, they may be treated as Kings and Queens but only as tourists. They will not be welcomed home. The cultural differences are far too great to be treated as just another Ghanaian, Nigerian or Senegalese. Haitians and all black people in the U$ can never go home. They are a people without a country.
     
  
Poupee Noire or Black Doll Why would anyone wish they were lighter skinned? taller? shorter? thinner? fatter? Why would anyone perform breast augmentation? liposuction? any cosmetic surgery for that matter? straighten, lengthen, curl or color hair? Why? Because we have been brainwashed. As children we are force fed fairy tales. For a girl the world of fantasy becomes reality as she waits for the knight in shining armor to save her and sweep her off her feet. Television, movies and generally all mass media continue to perpetuate this happily ever after myth through adulthood. We are too unwilling to appreciate the inherent beauty in reality.
   
SOLDI seriously started contemplating myself as a consumer when I brought another human being into this world. It matters more than ever what I buy, how it is produced, where it comes from, and where it goes after being consumed. The mantra changed from “consume, consume, consume” to “reduce, reuse, recycle.” This idea is a gateway through which I find myself passing every day of my life.
  
SOLDThe silhouette of the dancer is actually an empty void cut out of the door. There are thousands of images of dancers pasted to the surface of the door.Here is an excerpt from The Dead Emcee Scrolls by Saul Williams that says it better than I ever could:When you say you love me a series of changesbegin to occur. First there is warmth. The warmthgenerates heat. The heat permeates the cold. The icemelts. Limbs and branches are thawed. Bloodcirculates. A feeling of comfort pervades.The body is oxygenated. It becomes limber. It yearnsto dance, to move about freely and express it’s newfoundenergy. Music is sought through voice or ear. The heartidentifies the rhythm of the song and synchronizes itspace. A union is formed between the visible and theinvisible.Song is the invitation from the primordial unseen tobecome one with that which is seen. To nod your headis to agree that the moment is godly: communion. Todance is to become God. There are many ways of dancing.Follow your heart.
     
  
SOLDTitian’s Venus of Urbino had nothing on my Afro-dite or Urban Venus. A woman of color fits nicely in place of the Renaissance ideal beauty. I thank Sarah Loubeau for sitting for the portrait. Although a specific and very beautiful Haitian portrait was used, this Venus is symbolic for all women of color.
   
Most think of a door as a restraint or barrier. I have been thinking of doors as a gateway, portal, or vestibule. I want to visualize transformative ideas so that one changes after passing through or consuming them. You are not what you own. In this economy it is important to realize most people on this earth do not have electricity or running water. The Kumasi market is far from what most imagine when conjuring images of Whole Foods or your local grocery store, but it is alive with sights, sounds and smells.
  
Much thanks to Michele Wucker and her excellent book Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola. Wucker uses the cockfight as a metaphor of Haitian and Dominican struggle. She explains Tzvetan Todorov’s concept of the Other. “We are defined not only by what is within us but by reflections off those around; they become what is within. For this reason, the Other that is rejected most violently is often the one that resembles us, an interior Other: the one we need most.” The birds are painted on a mirrored door, forcing us to become a part of the struggle.
     
  
The portion of this deck and dick explains the African Diaspora.
   
SOLDFor centuries millions of Africans went through the infamous door of no return at Ghana’s Cape Coast Castle. This was a gateway through which many passed and died on the perilous journey across the Atlantic. The fortunate survivors arrived in the Americas as slaves.West African Adinkra symbols are much like proverbs. The symbol Sankofa is repeatedly carved into the door. Sankofa tells us we can return and fix it. We can remind ourselves and our children that suffering continues today because of ills 500 years old. We can never trample upon people because of their color, culture or class. Yet we do it every day. What lesson have we learned?
  
SOLD500 years of oppression force present day Haitian descendants of Africa to willingly risk their lives on rickety boats and cross treacherous waters to make it to the land of ill and money. Unfortunately those few who survive the trip wind up in Krome Detention Center, otherwise known as jail. There they are detained until being repatriated. We give political asylum to Cubans when they arrive even though many say they are leaving desperate economic conditions. With numerous regime changes Haitians flee political persecution and cannot stay because of economic reasons.Years ago, didn’t European ancestors flee to the Americas for the same reasons? We don’t acknowledge Haiti, the second independent nation in the western hemisphere and first free black nation, even though we would be speaking French right now had it not been for Toussaint L’Ouverture defeating Napoleon. When will our political, economic, social, spiritual, and emotional doors be open to Haiti?
     
  
My esteemed adviser, cerebral sculptor and father-in-law, Patrick Vilaire, told me on a recent trip to Haiti that I should follow my metaphor and start producing my ideas on physical doors. He was right. Painting the harrowing imagery of a slave ship diagram needed the overwhelming size of a real door. Juxtaposing the innocence of a baby with devastating historical references seems absurd. However, my daughter would not exist if noble West Africans were not stolen from their homeland and forced to work cane fields in Haiti. Are the descendants of the African Diaspora better off in the new world after 500 years? When will they awaken from their slumber?
   
SOLDDaavi Tugbe translates from Ewe to 'beautiful young woman' in English.
   
     
  
   
SOLD Sankofa was created to benefit Sheenway School and Culture Center's noble undertaking of creating a school in the Volta Region in Ghana.
   
Saul Williams' words have always inspired. After reading "Said the Shotgun to the Head" I was inspired to produce my savior.
     
  
How many times must we crucify women in the name of religion?
   
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SOLD The funeral of the Ashanti King was awe inspiring. Bamboo reeds were transformed into bones of the ancestors.
   
SOLDCures for anything can be found at the Kumasi market.
   
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Cedi's or cowrie shells were the first form of currency in Ghana. Capitalism and the ills of money worship have seeped into most every culture.