BIO

Monica Panzarino (b. 1979, New York, NY) is a video artist and educator. Her video, performance, and installation works combine real-time image and sound processing with a feminist, and often humorous, critique of American popular culture.

Panzarino received a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2002.  Her work has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally at venues including including Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria, European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück, Germany, WRO Media Art Biennale in Wroclaw, Poland, Winnipeg Underground Film Festival in Winnipeg, Canada, Vanity Projects in New York, NY, Phase Space in Brooklyn, NY, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago Underground Film Festival, and Athens International Film + Video Festival in Athens, OH. She has been an artist-in-residence at Outpost Artist Resources in Queens, NY, the Experimental Television Center in Owego, NY, Signal Culture in Owego, NY, and Institute for Electronic Arts in Alfred, NY. Her videos are distributed by Vtape in Toronto, Canada.

Panzarino lives and works in Queens, NY.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My experimental single-channel videos, performances, and installations employ humor, chance, and indeterminacy to subvert idealized representations of femininity in mass media.  By combining real-time image and sound processing with feminist cultural critique, I undermine the way gender is represented in popular culture, particularly in television, music videos, and advertising. 

How I make work is equally important as the final product.  I manipulate video and sound in real-time using audiovisual processing systems that include a unique combination of analog and digital tools.  The majority of my videos use a single take; little post-production editing or special effects occur after the fact.  My process contrasts with commercial moving image media, which is highly edited, fast-paced, and polished.  This method of electronic media-making allows for improvisation, imperfection, and failure to take place. 

With the creation of “The Nipulator”, my custom-built electronic bra, my practice has expanded to include wearable interfaces and performance for an audience.  This one-of-a-kind real-time processing tool allows the audience to experience the source of the image and sound manipulation as it happens.  ‘The Nipulator’ addresses the relationship between the body and technology while playfully fetishizing the utilitarian nature of the nipple.