Cassandra Zampini is a new media artist who examines the role of media in shaping our understanding of the world and our place within it.
Exhibitions
Machine, solo exhibition, The National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy, New York, February 2 - April 6, 2023
Visual Implications, Chashama, 340 64th, New York, NY, January 19 - Feb 12, 2023 Learn More
Media is shaping who we are…
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Political
Gamification of war, propaganda, disinformation
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Social
Celebrity culture, trends, pop culture, relationships
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Commercial
Commercialization of suffering, identity, attention economy
Social
Who we follow…
DataStream, 2019, single channel video with sound, 31 mins
Shapes what we do…
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#flex, 1 Sec, Archival pigment print, composite photography, 63 1/2 × 38 1/2 in
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#preggo, 1 Sec, Archival pigment print, composite photography, 63 1/2 × 38 1/2 in
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#sinkbooty, 1 Sec, Archival pigment print, composite photography, 63 1/2 × 38 1/2 in
In turn, is reused…
11,440 Selfies, NFT
The Sector series includes three unique pieces, each a compilation of more than 2,500 selfies that contemplates data at rest. The images are individually processed, hand-sorted, and organized by tonality to represent the number of selfies going up onto the web every 3 seconds.
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Sector I, 3 Seconds, Installed, Archival pigment print, composite photography, 50 3/8 × 30 in
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Sector III, 3 Seconds, Installed, Archival pigment print, composite photography, 50 3/8 × 30 in
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Sector II, 3 Seconds, Installed, Archival pigment print, composite photography, 50 3/8 × 30 in
“From afar, many of these images are reduced to something like old school television static, with buzzing layers of black and white seeming to resolve into stripes, but then dissolving back into crackly noise…up close, the amazing diversity of humanity seems to be collapsed a bit, each of us looking largely like our neighbors and friends when placed in front of a mirror with our smartphones.” —Collector Daily
Political
What we see…
What we see…
MediaWarfare, 2020, single channel video with sound, 25:17mins
Installation at Chashama, 2023
Works Shown: MediaWarfare, #flex, 1 sec, #preggo, 1 sec
MediaWarfare is an exploration of how the spread of disinformation on social media can influence and shape our worldview, relationships, politics and opinions.
The 25 minute 17 second work is a compilation of hundreds of conspiracy theory videos by several hashtags aggregated from across the web. They range from the mildly comical #hollywierd or #FlatEarthers, to the deeply disturbing #SecondCivilWar, #PizzaGate, and #nothingcanstopwhatscoming.
As one video clip disappears from the screen, it is immediately replaced by another. All of the audio is original to the videos, and is interwoven throughout the film depending on which clip is being played.
Where one might experience a single video in passing, MediaWarfare displays hundreds of similar videos concurrently – demonstrating the bombardment of toxic information experienced on social media.
Shapes war.
Machine, 2023, screenprint on linen canvas, 20 x 78”
Without looking for it…
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M5, 2023, screenprint on paper, 14.8 x 22"
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M1, 2023, screenprint on paper, 14.8 x 22"
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M2, 2023, screenprint on paper, 14.8 x 22"
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M4, 2023, screenprint on paper, 14.8 x 22"
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M3, 2023, screenprint on paper, 14.8 x 22"
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M6, 2023, screenprint on paper, 14.8 x 22"
But it finds us anyway.
M1 Black, 2023, screenprint on linen canvas, 20 x 20”
Machine confronts our perception of the meme as cultural language and truth. Memes not only spread ideas faster than any other form of communication today, they also convey references to familiar symbols, images, videos, phrases, and cartoons from popular culture or mainstream media. As vehicles or “points of recognition,” they have the power to legitimize or delegitimize individuals, groups, politicians, or ideas at a quick glance. Zampini extracts these symbols or ‘reference points’ of content intended for propaganda, and transforms them into the subjects of her artworks.
Nudges our direction.
Women’s bodies have been objectified for centuries in all forms of media and advertisements, but today social media is the new form of communication consumed at an unprecedented scale and magnitude. To keep up with the billions of “likes” and comments on social media, women arrange themselves in bewildering numbers of carefully posed, curated and heavily edited selfies. The more sexualized the pose, the more likes and comments (and sometimes profits) she receives. The endless cycle refuels her desire for acceptance and plunges her further into the need to achieve cultural standards of beauty, while replaying the tapes for younger generations to aspire.
Commercial
We don’t make the rules about what we see or how we see it…
Collision, 2022, single channel video with sound, 21 mins
Lucidity is a series of car dashcam stills pulled from popular social media and internet videos. Each abstract still is the final frame captured from a horrific car accident. Here the blurred abstractness is actually a glimpse of reality. It presents the sole moment of unexpected clarity, the final view before death that we would not have witnessed before this technology.
By distilling violent and highly sensationalized videos down to their final still, the work addresses the harm caused from watching repetitive tragedies fed from algorithms designed solely to increase viewership. In these instances, our digital culture can desensitize us to one of the most universal and difficult truths of our humanity — death.
Installation images forthcoming.
But we see it anyway.
Still 6, dye-sublimation print on aluminum, 12.5in x 12.5in, 2022
Still 7, dye-sublimation print on aluminum, 12.5in x 12.5in, 2022
Still 4, dye-sublimation print on aluminum, 12.5in x 12.5in, 2022
Still 9, dye-sublimation print on aluminum, 12.5in x 12.5in, 2022
We self-identify with brands, while they incentivize our behavior.
#youcantbeatthefeeling, 2022, installation view, Archival Pigment Print on Dibond, hand-inked by the Artist, 56 x 28 in
BrandHouse is a photographic series that explores the dark reality of what is lost when we use brands and social media to express our identities.
The work is created from hundreds of “brand selfies,” a trend that was discovered when hand sorting thousands of images from over 10 million selfies pulled from the web. Selfie takers hold up the same products over and over again in their photos, using the brand’s messaging already alive in the popular imagination to represent themselves. They are, in part, taking ownership of the brand, but what about us is lost when we use signs and symbols from advertisers and corporations to represent ourselves?
BrandHouse consists of three large-scale inked pigment prints each comprised of thousands of full-color selfies of people posing with their favorite consumer products. The work is named after the brands’ advertising slogans, #doubletheyou (Starbucks), #haveacokeandasmile (Coke), and #imlovingit (McDonalds). The same images are washed with a deep black ink, both obscuring and highlighting the images underneath. The inked brand-focused selfies create a ghostly inversion of the selfie, similar to the metallic qualities of a daguerreotype. The unique ink formula, a solution discovered after months of testing, creates different tonalities in the work – as you move around the piece the selfies appear, and then fade away.
About
Cassandra Zampini is a New York based new media artist who transforms Internet content into print and video artworks to examine the role of media in shaping our understanding of the world and our place within it. Zampini creates Internet-mined artworks by harvesting vast amounts of existing digital media, and then recontextualizes and depowers the content into physical space. She introduces an unfamiliar and aggregate lens to that which is familiar, personal and influential exploring the impact of advertising, self-promotion, and propaganda in shaping our modern society. She aims to challenge the viewer’s perception of autonomy and control, while proposing an antidote through awareness and introspection.
Cassandra Zampini has been featured in exhibitions across the country, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The Center for Creative Photography, at the University of Arizona; The Arnot Art Museum in Elmira, NY, the Griffin Museum of Photography, and is an invitee for the current traveling show, A Yellow Rose Project. Zampini’s work has been featured in publications such as The Atlantic, The Art Newspaper, and The Collector Daily. In addition, her artwork is collected by private, public, and corporate collections including the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and Armoni Investments in Boston and she is currently an artist fellow at the New York National Arts Club.
Cassandra Zampini
e. cassandra@cassandrazampini.com