From Wayne Zebzda:
Roadtripping with artist Wayne Zebzda
by Pam Woolway
The Garden Island
September 25, 2009
Twisted guardrails, a 17 foot tower of stacked road signs, a disco ball made from reflective road bumps “” you”™ve seen it all before, just not quite like this.
Roadtrip, an exhibition by local artist Wayne Zebzda opened in the space adjacent to Galerie 103 at Kukui”˜ula Village [on Kauai in Hawaii] this month. From 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday let the artist guide you through his monument to traffic. Or if you”™d rather phone in, that”™s an option. Zebzda”™s voice recorded tour of the show can be heard by dialing 408-794-7745.
“I”™ve always liked signs and symbols. Universal images cut across cultures the same way music builds a bridge,” he said.
Described by the artist as found art, Zebzda is something of a planetary janitor clearing the roads of wreckage that would have found the landfill.
Reckless drivers and graffiti artists become his accomplice.
“The signs slowly evolved over time,” he said. “It started with graffiti signs on old cane roads to Polihale. Originally I was just documenting them,” he said.
First he”™d photograph these island artifacts, then enlarge them and then turn them back into signs. The turning point came four years ago when the Department of Transportation started letting him rummage through their scrap metal. Zebzda”™s studio is filled with wounded road signs and spiraled guardrails.
“The twisted guardrails are so surreal to me,” he said.
In many cases he catches roadworkers cleaning up after an accident and just hauls off their rubbish. In the case of his reflective disco ball, “Feel the Beat,” little piles of road bumps along the Poi”˜ipu Tree Tunnel were there for the taking. Read the rest of this article here.