“Experiment, pulling one or another needed fact out of the purse of experience, does not return them as the promissory note requires, but puts them into circulation.”
- Osip Mandelstam

Whether working with objects, photography, or drawing, Joe Zorrilla incorporates the philosophy of the bricoleur into the entirety of his practice. The bricolage approach brings together disparate forms, materials, and ideas together in a reductive manner, allowing for the viewer to approach with a sense of openness and possibility.

Zorrilla’s installation centers around three sculptural works. The Wish and the Deed #4 (sun, moon), 2018, a recurring title in several previous works, gleaned from the writings of American philosopher Norman O. Brown who attempted to formulate a comprehensive view of human history. The large triangular wooden sculpture with mixed media elements is suspended from the 20-foot-tall ceiling beams of The Ice House.

Beneath this work, a series of jagged conjoined lines made from steel sit atop a rug. The open-ended sculpture can be interpreted in many ways, one that comes to mind is a sense of hopefulness mixed with caution.

A semi-opaque glass sculpture, a tribute to the French ethnologist/poet Victor Segalen, rounds out the sculptural installation. The writings of Segalen center around ideas of globalization and opacity, and reveal the fluidity of human relations despite systems of segregation and discrimination—our differences are what unite us.

Joe Zorrilla (b. 1982) lives and works in Los Angeles. He received his MFA from California Institute of the Arts in 2012, and since then has exhibited at Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels, and Hannah Hoffman, Los Angeles. Zorrilla was recently an artist in residence at The Watermill Center in Water Mill, NY and his work has been acquired by numerous institutions including Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Hammer Museum, the Watermill Center among others.