Zachary Trebellas - Tumblr Posts
I've had a lot of free time at work lately, part of which I've been devoting to studying foreign languages and part of which I've been using to worry about my undecided future in America. So, to take my mind off that, I decided to collaged a bit with office supplies during sixth period.
The question most weighing on my mind lately. The image is from a 1970's English text book I picked up for free at the Kawaura library.
Pictures taken between March and May that I had printed last weekend.
I though it'd be fun to visually document my stress about where to start the next phase of my life in the US after August. The image is from a 1970's children's math text book the library was giving away.
The twelfth piece in my photo series on group identity. This one comes from the Minamata Cultural Exchange Festival where I photographed attendees. Noriko was especially friendly and enthusiastic about taking part. More info on the series at the project site.
More thoughts about where my life's headed right now. Click high res to read my text at the bottom. The image was scanned from a 1970's Japanese English text book.
I'm currently working on part two to this project, this time asking participants what groups they feel they don't identify with that they've been lumped into by others. For my own responses I chose capital G' gay, white person, and baka gaijin. The first comes from multiple encounters I've had with gay and straight people alike who assume I'm familiar with certain books, show tunes, divas, bars, etc. because of my sexuality. A former roommate of mine, surprised I hadn't heard of some gay icon, told me, "I have to teach you your culture." White person is naturally the category I'm placed into most in the American media. While I understand it's a useful term for talking about issues surrounding inequality, oppression, and discrimination, I think too often it's conflated with cultural identity. I really take nothing from the term when it comes to that. Baka gaijin is Japanese for idiot foreigner. Though I've never been called this directly, on a weekly basis I encounter preconceptions others have of me because of my status as a foreigner. I had my car and body searched for weapons by the police because of this and have been thought to be incapable of a long list of things like: speaking, reading, or writing Japanese, using chopsticks, eating rice, drinking tea, eating sushi, etc.
My intent with I Identify With is to create a positive counterpoint to these external categorizations; I feel that showing the negative side of things will help highlight the positive. For more information visit the project site.
Each character's meaning is translated in the image caption.
I'm still working on my series Jiji, the project where I ask people to assign meanings to some of Japan's thousands of rare kanji. It's nice to have a light, simple project I can carry around with me. The first piece, pronounced ni (knee), was written by Jason Shon, an American working as the Kumamoto Prefectural Adviser to the prefecture's JET teachers. He used his own job experience as well as the character's two radicals, mouth and ear, to decide on its meaning. The second, pronounced chi (chee), was written by Togawa-sensei, my school nurse. She used the left radical, woman, and the right radical, which is often used in kanji dealing with dirt or earth, to produce the meaning Mother Earth. The third was by a friend's grade school coworker, a 26-year-old English teacher. Her character, shin (sheen), is made up of a radical for mountain (top) and one for tough, arduous, or spicy (bottom). Like the others, she took both into her meaning. I'm curious to see how people continue to creatively interpret a character's radicals. After all, combining the meaning of radicals was how many kanji were originally created. At the same time, I'd like to know what meaning would arise if someone disregarded the kanji's components and went with a more abstract, personal approach.
I’m currently working on part of to my I Identify With project, this time asking participants what groups they feel they don’t identify with that they’ve been lumped into by others. My intent is to create a positive counterpoint to these external categorizations; I feel that showing the negative side of things will help highlight the positive.
For more information visit the project site.
The thirteenth piece in my photo series on group identity. More info on the series at the project site.
This project has taught me new things as an artist seeking participation from others. I learned how to explain myself and what I'm looking for clearly and concisely, so that I get the right kind of responses. I'd had a similar project before, "I Identify As", which was getting me a lot of goofy self-descriptions instead of honest responses about identity. Only after changing "as" to "with" and cleaning up my explanation, did people's answers really shift. Second, I've learned to be more flexible. At first I had an idea of the kinds of responses I was looking for: short, serious, group-oriented, but I've come to embrace the diversity of responses, like this very long one. I wanted this project to give people freedom to express their group identities, and I learned that, after clearly explaining my intentions, I should commit to that freedom 100%. This is the fourteenth photo in I Identify With. More info and photos at the project site.
A public service-type project I was thinking about distributing while in Japan. I ended up doing a presentation at my school on LGBT issues instead. Being gay was definitely one of the hardest things for me about living in Japan.
"You're not alone. There really are a lot of people who are gay, and they are all worrying and going through hard times like you, but there's nothing to be ashamed of -- I don't want you to become depressed." An edited excerpt from a video interview with a gay Japanese teacher, age 30.
1/16 Japanese people are sexual minorities.
The video, in English and subtitled Japanese, can be found here.
A recent photo shoot with my friend Ian for my Etsy shop, MYMYZAYZAY
After spending June and July of 2012 taking hundreds of photographs throughout Chicago’s south side, I began to print and place those photos on the north side. I determine the placement by Chicago’s systematic address system, thus an image of 3500 S. Halsted would be placed at 3500 N. Halsted and so on. I then take an image of the north side location and combine the two into a diptych. I learned so much about the south side by exploring it for this project. Though I can’t pretend to understand the lives of those who live on there, I understand now just how many misconceptions and assumptions I’d had about their neighborhoods before seeing things for myself. Warnings from roommates, friends, and the press had caused me to paint the south side as largely poor and dangerous. However, much of it proved to be, at least on the surface, perfectly safe. Middle class areas abounded and even poorer areas were never totally impoverished. Even amongst hardship, people seemed to be striving hard to keep their lives together and make things work. I've always been unsettled by the idea that the majority of Chicagoans ignore and never experience the deep beauty, suffering, and humanity of the city’s south side. So, coming back to this project after two years in Japan, I'm excited to continue inserting the south side into the everyday lives of north siders. To see other south side photos click here.
Zachary Trebellas. I feel like the economy and I want different things from each other, 2014. Digitally manipulated found image.
The fifteenth piece in my photo series on group identity. More info on the series at the project site.
Zachary Trebellas. Video Games, 2014. Digitally manipulated screenshot from X-Men 2: Clone Wars for Sega.
The sixteenth piece in my photo series on group identity. I took this one of my brother at Mogushi Beach near my town in Japan.
More info on the series at the project site.
Would anyone like to be the first participant in a new art project I'm starting? I'm looking to send one of these two keys to someone currently undergoing a challenge in their life. Meanwhile, I'll send the second key to someone else going through a difficult time. When each person gets through their challenge, it's then their task to pass their key on to someone else with difficulties they need to overcome. Thus, the two key holders, strangers to each other, are linked by mutual adversity. If you're interested, message me and we can work out the details.