Artworks

Marcel Dzama

Canadian, b. 1974

Citizens of Regimentation, 2004

Screenprint with hand coloring

22 3/4 x 20 1/4 in. (57.79 x 51.44 cm)

Marie-Louise and Samuel R. Rosenthal Fund, 2008

Marcel Dzama’s influences range from the theatre, the circus, natural history museums, television variety shows, and the daily sidewalk sideshows of his native Winnipeg and New York City, his current home. His chorus lines of the human and the semi-human—in which the mock serious march lockstep with the completely absurd—are metaphors for deeper crises in civilization’s various collectives: one for all and all for… what? History proves that there is potential for mischief in any collective undertaking. The human and the inhuman may oppose one another, but may just as often beguile one another while walking side by side.