Ally Greenzaid
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Behind These Brick Walls
2020
Etching with aquatint
30x22 inches
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Brick Corner
2019
Stone lithograph
12x16 inches
Statement
“Let's turn on the juice and see what shakes loose”- Beetlejuice.
This series of prints and sculpture is inspired by the anthology of Tim Burton’s film work, specifically from the movies Beetlejuice,The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Edward Scissorhands. Animated by the mystical shapes of the buildings, houses and the center role that focuses on design and creation of architectural space, the sets become a focus point in the films and sometimes upstage the actors. The architecture and detail in the buildings and houses in The Nightmare Before Christmas are a part of what makes the film so special. The use of animated personification, which gives the set designs human characteristics, is a device I channel through my work. Think of William Wordsworth’s poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, but with a Tim Burton spin. The house in Edward Scissorhands is where the main character Edward lives and is an eerie, dark house on top of the hill. Yet right below it is a neighborhood filled with pastel colored houses. What is going on in those houses?
Everyone itches to know what is going on right in front of them at all times, but what if I created something that most people would look at with curiosity and yet a little bit of fright? A house with a face on it? “Nonsense” most would say. Inanimate objects, like houses have spirits and stories that will never be told, but only in this world that I have created. Through my work, I am trying to tell a story but at the same time leave enough missing information so that the viewer can finish the story themselves. Like a good read with your own personal ending.
In the etching, Goodnight and Go, the first of the series, the narrative unfolds through aquatint and line etch. The eyes on the houses were the first step in creating a character and giving the house a personality. In the etching, Before We Fall Asleep, the combination of eyes and faces on the houses creates an in depth persona for viewers. The continued use of patterning enlists a feeling of space, specifically with etched black and white tiles which operate as a way to ground the houses, keeping in mind the notion that they could be floating in their own separate world. The empty houses evoke a void for viewers to create their own stories and guess at what might be happening inside. You never really know what goes on inside someone's head, or in this case, behind closed spooky doors.
Printmaking (BFA) Students