This is our latest installment of artist Don Porcella's concept of a 10 part question and answer format interview of contemporary artists that he comes into contact with through his practice, art fairs and exhibitions. The following interview is with Bryan Zanisnik.

Q. What brought you to art or what brought art to you?
A. When I was thirteen years old I began making war and immigration movies with my grandmother using my father's video camera. While these movies were hardly
considered art at the time, their production created a nascent interest in film,
narrative, genre, and performance. These are all interests that are still relevant
to my art making practice today.

Q. What was your first art experience that you can remember?

A. In kindergarten I made a traffic light out of cardboard.
 

Q. What influences your art?

A.My work is influenced by a diverse range of interests. Some of these interests
include modernist European literature, new wave French film, silent film, early
twentieth century psychology, popular culture and current events, suburban kitsch
and small-town museums, obscure collections, Americana, and absurdism to name a few.
 

Q. Where did you grow up/how has that location impacted your work?

A. I grew up in the suburbs of New Jersey, and this has had a profound impact on my
work. Much of my art deals with the absurdism, banality and psychological
implications of suburban life. I often incorporate my parents into my work, and, in
fact, two of my recent videos were shot with them in their current New Jersey home.

Q. Is art learned or are you born with the talent. What does it take to be
successful in the arts?

A. I do not think artists are born with talent. As with many things in life, our
ability to make interesting art is shaped by the people, experiences and culture
that surround us.
 

Q. Do/Did your parents support the idea of you being an artist?

A. My parents aren't just supportive, but are actually in much of my work. While I have
been making videos with them for half my life, most recently I have begun
incorporating them into my live performances. As part of my M.F.A. thesis at Hunter College this past spring, I did a three-hour duration performance with them. In the performance, I layed burnt over a 1,000-pound bale of crushed aluminum. My father stood opposite me dressed as a fireman holding a garden hose, and my mother stood next to him wearing a children's fireman hat. For the entire three hours of the performance I layed completely still as they stared at my burnt body.

Q. What are your hobbies?

A. Most of my hobbies also include art. Some hobbies that don't include art are bike riding, hiking and arm wrestling.

Q. What would you do with a million dollars?
A. I would invest it and live off the earned interest. Or if I were feeling more
impulsive, I would buy a lot of avocados.

Q. Do politics belong in art?
A. In some sense, all art is political. As far as overtly political art is concerned, there is a place for it in the art world, but it is not something I have ever been interested in exploring. I think it is much more interesting to make open-ended, yet socially engaged work, rather than that which is didactic and agenda driven. 

Q. What artists do you like/collect? Please list your top 5
A. Some of my favorite artists are Charles Ray, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Werner Herzog, and Jean-Luc Godard.

http://www.zanisnik.com