Katja Zimmer

About

   cannibalisms is a series of conflicting screenprints on handmade paper comprised of palm fronds, takeout boxs, and reclaimed prints. The series troubles the language of reclamation and autoorientalism used to combat anti-asian violence post-2020. Much of this dialogue is reactionary rather than pointed towards liberation. I used homemade stencils of the chop suey font, an American invention used to connote Asianness. Inspired by the ambiguous and conflicting messages of Holzer's truisms, I mixed personal poetry with nationalistic songs to test their connotation in the chop suey font. Knowing the teeth of the paper would lead to an imperfect screenprint, I make an unarchivable unruly edition that would deteriorate over time, trapped in the confines of its own production and unknowingly reproducing what it disavows.
    Towards the end of the cannibalisms series, I became frustrated with how the chop suey font became muscle memory for my hands. I was part of the vicious cycle that my work was seeking to end. I wanted to let the material of the paper speak for itself. Text is still implied, but the blankness offers a future beyond. I won't render a horizon that's false; it's up to the viewer to imagine otherwise.

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