Stephen Zerne [thinker]

Work

To read the artists statetment click HERE, or on the about button above.
If you would like contact information click HERE.

Recent Work

A thought that has followed me recently is the idea of the small details reflecting larger systems. Things that make our lives possible. These are a direct reflection of the vast systems that are often overlooked and inspiration from taking these things out of context. It should be noted that although the new context is created for many of these things; it doesn't actually preserve them. Preservation of these things is all of our responsibility.

Select Past Work

Creating imagery that illustrates nature and objects of nature in a context that is unnatural is a common theme in my work.

Practice & Process

Ideas and concepts are what keep us going. Here are a few of mine. Some are, and some will be the inspiration for further work.

Scroll down for more about Stephen Zerne.

Events

Presently Showing:

Natural Context [Photography including works from "Indigenous"]

Statement

These works are an examination into our perception of nature: taking nature into a context that it is not normally viewed, and realizing the progress inherent in nature without deliberate action. In this series, I'd like to encourage my viewers to think about what we normally pass by and how even the seemingly insignificant creates harmony and balance in our world. 

My work is always derived from a question. There is no correct answer to what a work is or means, only that the viewer connects. What I look for is the personal connection that the viewer creates. I wish to explore aesthetics and its palpable relationship to the core human mental framework with emphasis on empathy and social context. I wish to question what makes human constructs and natural frameworks separate in our minds. To explore, prod, and twist what is human empathy and how empathy plays into our sense of beauty. How forms and elements of nature create communicable imagery or even iconic forms that can spell out a very specific story, or leave its audience with an array of questions.

This photography is unlike my normal process in that it is an immediate and unaltered reflection, rather than a carefully manipulated form. For me, the medium is secondary to the end goal. Regardless of medium or subject, each action is an effort of learning, experimenting, experiencing, and communicating.

Select images available for viewing at Dose

These works were all taken inside the city of Nashville.

Photography is available for viewing at Dose [coffee & tea] in Nashville Tennessee. While at Dose, these photographs are priced individually at $250 with frame.

More information available below, or Contact Stephen.

Past Events:

Indigenous [select works]

Select works from the duet show of Stephen Zerne and Audry Deal-McEver at 40AU were available for viewing at Wholy Crepe in Franklin Tennessee and Watkins College of Art and Design in Nashville.

http://wholycrepe.com/

http://watkins.edu/

Exhibition at Wholy Crepe was available February 2012 through June 2012, and at Watkins from May 2012 through August 2012, during business hours.

More information available below, or Contact Stephen.



Closed System as part of the Brick Factory’s Member & Teacher Showcase

Opening Reception as part of the First Saturday ArtCrawl, Brick Factory in suite 126 at Cummins Station, 6pm-1am.

A showcase of work being made by Brick Factory Nashville and its partners.

Exhibition is May 5 - 31 of 2012, 9-5 Mon-Fri

Featuring work from:
Statement for Closed System

The second law of thermodynamics states that any machine or closed system will eventually exert all the available energy, leaving the system inert. This is a natural phenomenon and is part of the larger natural cycles we find available to us.

Mounted into panels to create a sterile landscape, the units are hung so that the skeletal branches are perpendicular to their natural state while alive. Cultivated, as is so much of our landscape, this installation is meant to question the relationship between humans and nature and the idea that humankind is in control of nature. This is not a new question, and has been posed in well known and classic literature. A historical review of design shows many cultures revolving between definitive perspectives of humankind’s relationship with nature. These perspectives include: a responsibility to contain and manipulate nature; the glorification and reverence of nature as our creator, provider, master, or parent; and the idea that we are neither master nor servant, neither parent nor child, but that we are wholly part of a massive system.

Closed System: Install & Opening

Press for the show!

“Facebook release”

“CINCO DE MAYO AFTER CRAWL”

“Cinco De Mayo in the ’Ville!”



Indigenous

HAUS and 40AU are pleased to invite you to Indigenous, a duet show of Stephen Zerne and Audry Deal-McEver.

www.audrydealmcever.com

Opening Reception as part of the First Saturday ArtCrawl, 40au in Space 69 at the Arcade, 6-9 pm.

Exhibition was through Jan 8-23 of 2012, by appointment

From the press release: In Indigenous, Zerne and Deal-McEver depict overlooked landscapes and endangered species found regionally in Tennessee. Through intimate perspectives, the show documents the botanical world around us in a attempt to magnify often unnoticed aspects of our relationship to our ecology.

Indigenous Opening

Haus Rotations: Works in Progress (2011)

HAUS welcomes you to join us for a look into the studio process. Showcasing idea generation, work demonstration, concepts in process, and tangential thoughts from the region’s creative professionals, Works in Progress pulls the audience into a sneak peek with the working artist and invites your dialogue into the studio process. Further your understanding and see what we’re up to.

Featuring work from:

Press for the show!

“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!” : The Examiner : Sep 12, 2011

“Winds of Change: Nashville’s Autumn Line-up Engages Alternate Concepts of Showing Work” : Number:inc : Fall 2011

Scroll down for more about Stephen Zerne.

About

The work of Stephen Zerne is an examination into our perception of nature: both taking nature into a context that it is not normally viewed, and realizing the progress inherent in nature without deliberate action.

Stephen's work is always derived from a question. There is no correct answer to what a work is or means, only that the viewer connects. What he looks for is the personal connection that the viewer creates. He wishes to explore aesthetics and its palpable relationship to the core human mental framework with emphasis on empathy and social context. To question what makes human constructs and natural frameworks separate in our minds. To explore, prod, and twist what is human empathy and how empathy plays into our sense of beauty. How forms (often human) and elements of nature create communicable imagery or even iconic forms that can spell out a very specific story, or leave its audience with an array of questions.

In producing anything he finds the intimate and often tactile process to be most gratifying, and this is part of what activates it as a valuable thing. Even in the finest of detail he is tangibly involved. In each he builds off of the last moment, driving the materials closer and closer to completion. The photography is unlike his normal process in that it is an immediate and unaltered reflection, rather than a carefully manipulated form. For him, the medium is secondary to the end goal. Regardless of medium or subject, each action is an effort of learning, experimenting, experiencing, and communicating.

Contact Stephen

That's all, Folks!