Walter and Zoniel

Walter & Zoniel are a young, London based, artist duo. They live, work, sleep, breathe, eat and create together, twenty four hours a day.

They work within the mediums of installation, sculpture, photographic process, film and performance. Their work focuses on visually charming and enticing the viewer into thought and momentary escapism, whilst dealing predominantly with the human condition, evoking a relationship and questioning between all the elements involved.

Multi-disciplinary in their practice, the central themes to their work come from a meditation upon our existence and reflection of the intricacies of the relationships we each have with one other and with the natural world around us.

Elements of Walter & Zoniel’s work has also centred on utilising scientific process and pioneering the modern development of early photographic techniques. Devoid of the overwhelmingly polished look of a contemporary photograph, Their evolved ambrotypes, tintypes, salt prints and pigment prints are not only laboured with the marks of their own hand making, but also capture the life of the subject in an unparalleled way.

Their more recent installation and sculptural works centre upon the subjects of inspiration and our innate connections with each other and with the universe, where they utilise the surrealist and the beautiful or the ethereal as a medium. All of their work carries the undercurrent of their optimism and mantra that everything is possible.

Through their meditative processes of creation, which is often deeply physical, they have developed their own unique techniques that focus upon the cyclic nature of existence, embodying the human condition as much within their process as in their finished artworks. Their work merges experiences from both of their scientific and Buddhist backgrounds driven by a commitment to deeper exploration of the mind and universe and genuine formats with which they can express.

Both Walter and Zoniel have practiced art since childhood. Walter was born and raised in the heart of London. The urban landscape was his favourite and most comfortable domain where he would created installations in the street. Wandering the concrete complexes of his locality at night and responding to the terrain and the mentalities that he came across, he would create pieces to inspire thought within his peers placing them publicly to be stumbled across in the day. Inspired by the workings of the universe he focussed his interests in the studies of science and Nebular theory before teaching himself photography.

Zoniel grew up in both the city and the hills of North Wales. Childhood events and illness inspired a deep fascination of the capabilities of the human mind and its perception, which grew into a desire to capture and represent those things through the arts and music. Seeking out a means to further explore this fascination, as a teenager she renounced her worldly belongings and moved to a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery where she studied meditation and Tibetan arts under the guidance of a Master Artist and many High lamas.

Their work weaves their outlooks together, their individual takes on the analytical and the ethereal. Their joint energy fuels further creation and their practice in itself acts as a vessel to push the expansion of their understanding. They are Formationist.