Conversations with Zakriya Rabani

Today we’d like to introduce you to Zakriya Rabani.

Hi Zakriya, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in Naples, FL and given a different last name than both of my parents. I grew up always being outside in the swamp, mud, woods, climbing trees, mansions on the beach, skating, longboarding, rollerblading, playing games and always causing trouble. I grew up as an athlete, I played many sports but became very good at tennis. By age 14 I was working at a local tennis club in Lely Resort and soon became a teaching professional by age 17.

I graduated high school in the top 30 or so in my class but because the school had such an impact on me I was voted to give a speech at our graduation. (also voted prom king, for whatever that’s worth).

I had really good grades but because no one in my immediate family had gone to college and we were really poor I almost didn’t go to college or even apply. Actually, I was tempted to stay in Naples to adopt my little brother as his guardian, the tennis club had also offered me a Head Coach position.

I eventually went to the University of Florida and was able to acquire financial aid. Within the first semester, I almost failed out of school and I was actually supposed to be terminated from the university for bad grades. I was able to change majors into the world of art and I turned my grades around.

During college I played club tennis and competed at other universities – I also founded UF’s first-ever sand volleyball club which still runs today and has over 100 students try out every year.

Being an art major really made sense to me, I applied to grad school and got full tuition to attend the University of South Florida. I was there for three years, during that time I started the sand volleyball club at USF, which still runs today, and graduated at the top of my class. My thesis work consisted of 500 used skateboard decks hanging above a giant skate ramp in the Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL. People were allowed to walk on the ramp, touch the boards and turn on a light at the center of the work to illuminate all of the boards.

Once I graduated I got married and moved to Tallahassee, FL. I had met my wife while at UF, she was in the same art program as me.

While in Tallahassee I kept making art and even won “Best Sculpture & Performance” at one of the biggest regional competitions in the U.S. called ArtFields. I was also coaching indoor and sand volleyball full time. I started an Open Gym for locals which had over 40 participants each week. I led Florida State University School’s very first sand volleyball program and was able to take two girls to the state championship to win 3rd place.

In 2019, I was offered a job at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, CO. Anderson Ranch is world-renowned in the art world, I accepted the role of Studio Coordinator of Sculpture. I currently run and manage a world-class facility in the Rocky Mountains and specialize in involving the community in local, free, projects like Sled Derby, Tree light shows, community bronze casting and more. I have been in CO for 3 years and have become extremely involved in the community and have continued to produce my own artwork. I have public art on display in Snowmass,CO and I have shown at the Aspen Art Museum. Currently I have a show at the RedBrick Center for the Arts. I also was a Big Buddy for the Buddy program in the Roaring Fork Valley.

My current plan is to continue teaching and making art.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I was the type of kid who was extremely bright and curious. Because of that I always pushed boundaries.

My parents divorced when I was 12. This was the same year I was arrested and started testing the boundaries of higher authority figures.

My dad left to serve the military as a linguist, he is from Afghanistan and knows 6 languages, to serve 1 year contract obligations.

My mom became an alcoholic and was always a smoker. When I was 12 she told me that she was tired of being a mom. I did my best to take care of my brother from then on. She passed away last year.

Before I left for college I was in a bad car accident, I drove off the road and dislodged three palm trees. I was unharmed but totaled the car.

I have been on my own developing my own path since I was 12. I am still processing my childhood trauma.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
Here is my artist statement: It is the idea of human essence and its ability to travel through time and objects, the eternal return of the sense, that I am drawn to within my work.

The work I make can be seen as elementary, (in a post-minimal way) and unusual yet familiar. Adopting everyday objects and simple materials, I am thinking about how to transport the mind into faded traditions, to bring warm memories to light and to truly feel experiences that have long passed. I believe that our pasts have the power to positively influence our future if we can learn how. We are all surrounded by messages that have been left behind in materials and matter – we just have to seek them.

When looking at my work through the lens of autobiography I have come to realize that my art has in part been a way to cope with my childhood traumas. Because of this, I alter spaces to incorporate installation, sculpture, participation, collaboration and all-inclusive environments to engage viewers in experience. Experience teaches us how to live, how to fail and succeed, but most importantly how to be what it is we desire. What is seen, felt and can be interpreted is shaped by experience, this is something I have realized through my upbringing and education. It is our participation with objects, environments and people that allow us to retain and remember information to help us become driven and to find flow.

I am the most proud of my Divine Decks Series. Here is a short description about the project:

Through “Divine Decks, Tampa”, I am pushing this notion of a collective. My project incorporates skateboards donated to the Boards for Bros Headquarters: The Skate Park of Tampa (SPoT), which attracts skaters from around the world. This project will also have a book published that incorporates 100 skateboards that have been at least twice donated. Once to Boards for Bros, who in turn donated to me. I intend to find out what my project might reveal if an installation and a book are created from other chapter locations of the Boards for Bros. organization. What kind of information would surface if all the “dead” skateboards could be collected and reused? I aim to stir feelings of appreciation, interest, and imagination, but also to collect the memories and data that have been preserved. I believe that skateboards can be a model or reference, that they have the ability to show us symbols created by their owners, representing human or social behavior. Each deck has an abundance of information, there have been marks made, gouges, scratches, cracks, splinters, water damage and more. But there are also the cosmetics of each that can capture the authenticity of the skater. The griptape (top) and graphics(bottom) are covered with carefully placed stickers, drawings and graffiti, making every deck more unique. These symbols and marks are a key in better understanding skate culture and its influence in our lives.

Through my book and installation I mean to bring forward the power of the gift of skateboarding, “Why skateboards? The magic of a skateboard is that it is a mode of transportation in addition to being a tool for play, a tool for discovery, a tool to develop physical skills, a tool to interact with others who share an interest in skateboarding, a tool to teach problem-solving and a tool to teach perseverance. It is good for the mind and the body. It is fun. It can change someone’s life.”-Boards for Bros.

California, New York, North Carolina, Florida, New Jersey and Illinois are all chapters of the Boards for Bros. organization and I want to expand my project to these locations. I need to establish my own link analysis to help shed light on how the gift of skateboarding is a bigger representation of who we are as a people and who we can be. There is a link in all of us and I believe that my project emits human and social behavior from skate culture in a way that can bend the boundaries of the art world.

This is what installation Divine Decks does. It can hold the essence of over 300 souls. These skateboards will have become much more than just shaped wooden objects. It is a collective constructed at a monumental scale, a scale that helps convey the significance of these skateboards that now demand meditation and exaltation like an altar or a shrine.

Here is a quote that I feel really connects with me and my project: “Real liberation comes not from glossing over or repressing painful states of feeling, but only from experiencing them to the full.”-C.G. Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious

Who else deserves credit in your story?
Adrianna Roman: She is one of the mothers of one of my best friends Alex Roman. Adrianna is married to Linda Nelson and they were the first people to ever set boundaries for me. Whenever I came over they always put me to work, they enforced manners and proper speech. They treated me as their own and have supported me since.

Teri Gobert: Teri is my aunt and taught me to love playing games like card games, board games, but also adventures to amusement parks, go-kart racing, and so much more. Her energy and passion for fun has become a foundation of who I am.

Patricia Oxx: Mrs.Oxx is the reason why I went to college. I had her as a teacher every year I was in high school, sometimes twice a day. She is an English teacher who ran the yearbook class for journalism. She saw right through me and tested my abilities every day, I also tested her often. She pushed me to apply to college, she named me the Editor of the yearbook and she trusted me with responsibility.

Linda Wallace: Linda is a member at the tennis club I worked at. At first, she thought I was a cocky teenager who liked to play tough tennis against older folk. She saw the struggles I had at home and decided to help. She became friends with Mrs. Oxx and they would devise plans on how to help me succeed. Her son passed away around the time we met, I think I was able to help fill some of the void in some way. She drove me to Gainesville, FL for my college orientation and would drive up to check in on me. I speak with her daughter Annie often as we have become family and her husband Bennett when I am in need of adult advice.

Shelly Smith: Shelly was my mother and I love her dearly. Although she had her struggles she showed me how to work hard and be really good at pretty much anything. She was talented, gifted and wicked smart. A natural at pretty much anything she tried to do. I always envied that of her. She was an athlete and rode motorcycles – a real badass.

Jeanette Bullock: Jeanette is my wife, her and I have been through so much together. I was with her when her big sister passed away from breast cancer and she was with me when my mom passed. We have lived in several cities and she was willing to drop everything to move to Colorado for my job in the arts. She is an amazing woman who holds me to the highest of expectations. She knows my potential and pushes me constantly to process and step into my potential.

Jax & Mack: Jax is a hound dog that Jeanette and I picked out while we were in undergrad – which wasn’t a great idea. However, because I work in the arts dogs tend to be acceptable in just about any situation. Jax has always lived with me, even when Jeanette and I were long distance during grad school. He knows me probably better than I know myself and I wrote a story about him and his relation to my grandfather. It will be on my Facebook from 2020. Mack is an overgrown chihuahua my wife picked out and he has some serious personal boundaries that demand respect. But he is a beautiful quirky little dog and I love him.

There are other mentors/supporters but I think the ones listed above are a good start.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.zakriyarabani.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flow_zak/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prozakk86
• SoundCloud: https://www.zakriyarabani.com/video
• Other: https://foundwork.art/artists/zakriyarabani

Image Credits
Trey Broomfield – steel S with white background & bronze pencil/paper Gabriela Vasquez – 3 longboards in photo Pat Blocher – Divine Decks with skate ramp Lauren Molina – classroom desks image