The kingdom of the eye is being invaded and tiled over with delinearized mythmaking apparati. Consciously picking and curating from the material subset of these images is a personal act in the face of ruthless de- and re-individualizing cybernetic flows. Z. L. Raymond aims to undermine the impersonal nature of contemporary media by creating intimate scenes out of materials whose proper context is one of blind distance. The work is grounded in the surrealist hope that collage can uncover personal truth through the mindful juxtaposition of dissimilar images, and the initial selection of stoicheia is drawn from astronomy and architecture books, fashion magazines and newspaper.
Z. L. Raymond is a Montreal writer and collagist. She holds a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from Concordia University. Her writing has been featured in The Valley Below; Veils, Halos, and Shackles: International Poetry on the Oppression and Empowerment of Women; The Blasted Tree; Corpus; Spectral Haunts; and Anti-Languorous. Her French translation of the English play 805-4821 has been performed at the OFFTA Festival and Théâtre Catapulte. Her English translation of the French play Laitue Matinale (Morning Lettuce) has been performed at Théâtre Catapulte.
Z. L. Raymond’s visual art has been featured in What The Pop!; Headlight Anthology; The Emerging Artist Showcase in Collaboration with the Canada Arts Council; USINE 106U; MTL Uncovered Art Festival; Coups de pinceaux coup de ciseaux! Exposition Prendre Racine; DRIM/SPACE Magazine Issue 01 - Elevating Collag/ists; and Porter House Review.
She created the artwork for the single La Flamme by David Fleury (https://tinyurl.com/c9ba373e), and the album art for Easier Done than Said by Eric Morier (https://tinyurl.com/yc5hz8hn).
She was selected by Kolaj Institute for the PoetryxCollage Residency in the spring of 2022.
Z. L. Raymond is a Ph.D candidate with a research focus in exploring collage as a virtual container for poetry rather than a purely visual art form. This is also the focus of her current art practice.