Artist Statement
The zine “Deconditioning Our Minds: Boundary Dissolution, Intuition, and Symbiosis” by Reis Roberts is a unity of writing and illustration to encourage the evolution of consciousness in today’s world. The content of the zine passionately strives to shout a wake-up call in the reader’s life, in hopes to strike an emotional chord that’s been forgotten. The zine is formatted in a 6 x 8.25-inch book filled with psychedelic imagery, experimental typography, and diagrams that reference the text. In “Deconditioning Our Minds”, I kept in mind the ability for imagery to be more powerful than text. This is conveyed through radical images detailing the feminine energies of the universe, nature, and death. As the reader continues throughout the zine, they come across an array of topics meant to question their preconceived notions of their reality, asking them to reconsider the way they perceive the universe. The zine was meant to be something to come back to, to reference, to work with, and contemplate even past the initial contact made. The audience’s own interpretation and understanding is a critical component to this work too. For the conversation and contemplation born from the zine are where the special moments are to be found. This zine has the power to catalyze the viewer’s ambition and push them outside of their comfort zone and follow their intuition. The piece is important because it’s putting a magnified glass on the foundation of our roots in Western culture. These are the next ideas that are waiting to be asked of our society right now. This zine is the start in my own personal journey of asking those questions. I’m encouraging my viewers to come together, to listen to themselves rather than their institutions, to reconsider their preconceived notions, and break down the boundaries that have been built in their minds… And it all starts here.
