It's amazing how sacred the idea of travel has become to so many around the globe. It seems like, especially in certain professions, travel was taken for granted. Now that its gone for most of us, there is a sense of nostalgia that travel evokes, even in the short time its been away. I say this as I look the new show of Marcel Dzama, a new continuation of his virtual show Pink Moon that David Zwirner showed a few months back. Blue Moon of Morocco is on view now at Zwirner in Paris, where many of the drawings stem from Dzama's travels to Morocco that resulted in Louis Vuitton’s Travel Book series.
As the artist notes, “I drew countless sketches in situ, all in a spirit of immediacy...and I used them in my work on the drawings after returning home to the United States… I knew I would find the ornamentation used on fabric or rugs captivating, particularly in connection with my own work on motifs and costumes.” The elegance of Dzamas' DIY practice, from homemade videos to performance art, feels right at home in these paintings and drawings from Morocco. Travel seems to fit his practice well. His absorption of his surroundings is palpable here, where patterns and characters he found in his travels work seemlessly with his pre-existing iconography. If we can't travel, if our passports have remain in a dresser drawer for another chunk of time, there is something to behold in the history of our globetrotting ways here in Dzama's bodies of work. —Evan Pricco
