Image: © Johannes Zits, Working with Wood: Beaver Remnants, Pi*llOry part four, 2020. Photo by Tina Bararian.

Canada
www.johanneszits.com

My art invites a questioning of our preconceptions of nature that continue to be imposed by dominant histories and reductive, binaristic constructs. It is more than a passive backdrop in which we live and take from. Like the rest of nature, a tree is a responsive and creative body and should not be fixed simply in the realm of the material and sublime. To achieve more immersive conditions in my encounters with trees, I take time to observe, experience, contemplate and share. These extended moments open up spaces for reflective, as well empathetic actions and interactions.

Johannes Zits works with and combines digital imaging, collage, photography and painting to focus on the body. He received his BFA from York University in 1984. He has shown both in Canada and abroad. Zits travels widely while pursuing his art research. His extended stays in various cities include Taipei, Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, Shanghai, Manchester, Hamburg, Santiago, London and Berlin.