Animal Anarchy (Modern Girls, Modern Boys series), 2023

The ‘Modern Girls, Modern Boys’ series takes inspiration from happenstance collage such as the accumulation of street bill-posting and alleyway graffiti. Zam’s portrait work often features celebrated cultural figures; more recently whole images are constructed from thousands of tiny individual digital pieces. The subject, overlaid with clusters of sometimes hundreds of millefiori-like fragments from popular culture remains discernible; the random detritus creates a mysterious and slightly disturbing effect. This piece was inspired in part by genius fashion designer Vivienne Westwood (1941-2022), considered one of the historically most influential figures of that industry. It also celebrates the incredible textures and patterns of furs, feathers and skins. Harking back to a time of extravagant use, we are now sobered by the reality that close to 70% of the world’s wildlife has declined in the last 50 years. These wonders of nature are now consigned to the past in much garment use, and further to that - probably gone for good. Minted in celebration of World Collage Day, 2023.