I acknowledge the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nations on whose unceded lands I make art on. I respectfully acknowledge their Ancestors and Elders, past and present.

Zan Griffith

I am an artist based in Melbourne/ Naraam who makes masks and puppets and is interested in public city space. I enjoy creating fictional characters that I insert into public space in suprise guerrilla theatre style performances.

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My works merge combinations of history, literature, fantasy and the everyday to ask questions of and examine the contemporary. 

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In playfully pushing the boundaries of public space and creating spaces of possibility, my performative strategies hope to provoke and shift the public imaginary.

 

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Play and humor are important elements in the space I am attempting to create. Each of the characters I insert into the public realm are created to evoke a sense of playful humor. Mikhail Bakhtin, the Russian philosopher, in Rabelais and His World, explains that it is through humor and laughter that “a second world and a second life outside of officialdom” (p7) is built.

What I hope to do is use humor to construct a space where anything is possible even if just for a small moment in time. I hope that the possibilities of that space that I am occupying become more expansive and open the space up as a site for the impossible.

In understanding creativity as a function of being human, my work hopes to act as both an invitation and reminder to the infinite possibilities of public space. 

Thank you for visiting. More information about each character and my art practice can be found in the menu.