Without a Trace slows down the streaming news cycle and asks us to take stock of the outline—the contrast—of the text and image presented. Jody Zellen digitally traces an international news photograph from the New York Times, a current title pulled from the New York Times RSS, three words pulled from daily comic strips, empty speech bubbles from the comic, and finally a hand ‘trace drawing’ of a printed newspaper. This simple juxtapostion of snapshots from the news creates a beautiful interplay of disparate elements that at times strike a familiar chord. Exploring the daily permutations, one gets lost in the trace of events and begins to question the the defined media images and text that bombard us each day.
The Journal originally had the piece posted here, but due to recent encryption it can no longer be shown. To see the original piece, follow the link here
Without a Trace contains thousands of archived images. The archive section includes the daily pieces created in 2009, 2016, 2017, and 2018. The archive is a massive series of juxtaposed images and text creating thousands of relationships ready to be discovered. Explore the entire archive: http://www.jodyzellen.com/WithoutATrace
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Jody Zellen is a Los Angeles based artist who works in many media simultaneously. She creates interactive installations, mobile apps, net art, animations, drawings, paintings, photographs, public art, and artists’ books. What motivates her as an artist is to learn how to use and then integrate digital technologies into artworks that enliven and activate both public and private spaces. She wants her viewers to be inspired to think about the relationship between what is seen and what is imagined.
