DEFUNCT
COLLEGES
CHANTAL ZAKARI
2019-2020
INTRODUCTION
artist's publication/photo-book
8.5x6"
16 postcards
etched wood cover, spiral bound
risograph printing on acid free linen paper
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first printing edition of 7
signed and numbered
$450
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publication date: February 2019
Eighteen Publication
distributed by the artist
Defunct Colleges is a series of 16 photographic postcards with an accompanying story on the back of each card. The collection is displayed on a postcard rack and also bound into an artist’s book. The schools pictured and their stories range greatly: Everest University, a for profit school which closed while students were left in debt, Morristown College, which offered higher education for former slaves, and the campus of Virginia Intermont which has been purchased by a Chinese university. Among the 16 cards, a few also are from the Boston area: Wheelock, Newbury, Mount Ida... This work is an exploration of campus architecture as a signifier of American intellectual power and the recent transformations taking place in the industry.
The cards were printed on a Risograph press, a hybrid between a xerox copier and screen printing. The process includes experimentation with customized halftone patterns and CMYK color separations, a mixture of high-tech and hands-on manipulations where each card has its own color variation and stands out as a unique object. Through its distorted colors and heavy halftone, the postcards transform into nostalgic artifacts hailing from the future.
SAMPLE PAGES
EXHIBITIONS
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2019
Kingston Gallery, Cogent Message: Chantal Zakari, Boston, MA
REVIEWS & INTERVIEWS
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Images Objects Archives: The Multiple Lives of Photographs
organized by Andy Grundberg and Kate Addleman-Frankel, curator of Photography at Cornell
March 22, 2019
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IMPROPER BOSTONIAN
Spring Must See: Get Schooled
by Sarah Hagman, March, 2019
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TUFTS DAILY
Chantal Zakari's "Cogent Message" Deconstructs Institutional Failings
by Ruining Tang, March 14, 2019