Zachary Ayotte’s work considers bodies and their ability to contain complex and conflicting histories, both personal and social. Grounded in the body's relationship to uncertainty, his work reveals a pervading tension between the mutable aspects of individuals and their environment. Through careful attention to light and form, his images exist in a place between imagined and perceived realities.
In 2012, he self-published At the Same Time with five other artists in Canada and the United Kingdom. He has had solo exhibitions at Latitude 53 and SNAP-Society of Northern Alberta Print Artists in Edmonton, AB, as well as a duo exhibition with Nulle Part at the Art Gallery of Alberta.
He lives in Edmonton, AB.
Statement
I am interested in how we engage with bodies across space. Drawing on the idea of the asymptote (two lines that approach each other but never touch), my work considers the intimate distance that persists between two points. Working with photographic processes, which depend on a degree of space between subject and lens, I hope to draw a distinction between visual simplicity and certainty. Through the specific use of lighting and composition my work balances suggestions of intimacy and mystery. In doing so, I am asking sight to function as a form of touch, investigating the information available on surfaces. By balancing the invitation and necessity of looking with limited visual information, I am working to question both what we can truly know from seeing and what exists in the space between lens and subject that shapes how something is perceived
CV
Studio, inquiries, commissions: please contact info@zacharyayotte.com