The work in Zachary Jordan Penney’s Infinity Bag exhibition is presented on A4 paper.
It is reminiscent of the kind you would see used for memos in an office in the nineties—specifically, it conjures up images of the Initech office from Mike Judge’s Office Space. They could easily have been created by a crazed office worker idly doodling on the back of his memos instead of filling out his TPS reports.
There is also something distinctly nineties about the images themselves. They’re reminiscent of early episodes of The Simpsons and carry with them the spirit of cartoons such as Ren and Stimpy.
The easiest word for me to attach to the work in the exhibition is ‘gross’. Shit and exposed muscle are a prevalent theme. There are two images that continuously draw my attention, one being of a woman with some sort of a cubist face and exposed muscle on her arms and torso with her legs spread and a link of sausages being excreted from her vagina, and another that is of a dog-like creature wearing a Jimbo Jones-esque beanie with its heart hovering outside its chest.
Other images carry these themes but are somewhat more abstract. They are highly detailed and communicate the idea of a world that is coated in a layer of sleazy, sleazy dirt. From these images I was given a profound sense of a world that is mostly barren save for its occupants, and when there is landscape, it is a vast outdoor space, with perhaps one tree on the horizon.
The use of A4 paper means that we are only given bitesize views of this grimy, sleazy world. It leaves me wanting to see more of it but maybe that is the point: Penney leaves it up to my imagination and I feel like I am just barely able to glimpse around the corner. The work is fascinating and I hope further exhibitions showcase more of this world—I would love to see what Penney sees around the corner.