“An artist whose intimate yet extravagantly detail-rich puppet-based performances include elements of sculpture, light projection, live music, and his own voice and movement. With narrative structures resembling the half-dream consciousness of curious childhood, yet reflecting adult joys and anxieties and a mature bricolage craftsmanship.” - LA WEEKLY
Zach Dorn is a filmmaker, writer, and performing artist who creates miniature melodramas that explore the underbelly of childhood nostalgia through the disappointed eyeballs of adulthood. With puppets, paper dioramas, and a grotesque DIY craftsmanship, Dorn builds interweaving narratives tangled in homesickness and pop culture. Dorn’s multimedia puppet performances have premiered at Ars Nova (New York), St. Ann’s Warehouse (New York), and REDCAT (Los Angeles). His work has been funded by The Jim Henson Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, and the Artist Foundation of San Antonio. His first stop-motion film, Charlotte, premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival.
In 2016, theatre and movie director, Julie Taymor, sent dorn to Japan to explore the use of automata in Shinto rituals. While in Tokyo, he apprenticed under psychoanalyst turned experimental theatre director, Kuro Tanino.
Dorn received his MFA in Experimental Animation from Calarts in 2021 and is currently an assistant professor at the Seoul Institute of the Arts' Schools of Performing and Media Arts.