PEOPLE ARTISTS IN WICKER PARK
Seducing and repelling simultaneously—this is how Jane Wenger describes the emotional impact her work usually has on people who experience it. Jane’s medium, until now, has been still, black-and-white photographs, presented as a series. While each photograph is an art image of its own, each series has a greater impact than the sum of its parts. The interrelationship and the lingering images add another dimension to the experience of appreciating her work. Her exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art and the PS1 Gallery in New York were environmental installations adding statements in space, light, and sound to the images…
The subject matter is Man or Woman, the human form. Her early series dealt with the form in an abstract way against the background of air or water. Her last series dealt exclusively with faces, almost as landscapes in themselves—facescapes perhaps. They are not portraits nor are they representational; they are not pretty or handsome. Jane deals with the underside of things rather than with the glossy exterior. She states that her work is classical technically, and non-classical conceptually, in terms of its essence. It is her intention for the work to be difficult to deal with—disturbing, yet compelling—confronting. She states that this does reflect her personality. She is not an easy person; her work isn’t easy either. Jane does not feel that she is particularly political, but political ideas are implied covertly in her work.
Our society’s problems relate to the tendency to live on the surface and to deny unpleasantries, making reality illusive and more difficult therefore to interrelate with. Her images do not fit comfortably into our fast-food culture, and that is what she intends. Jane’s work is strong. The strength comes from the working process of creating it. As time passes and the process unfolds, Jane’s energies become more concentrated and focused. Other concerns and considerations seem to disappear, goals fall into place, and she feels the dynamic single-mindedness of purpose that makes everything work. The involvement becomes compelling. Work with film and moving images in symbiotic space is the direction her work is taking her, and she is feeling more and more involved in her process. This is happening now, after a four-year period of relative inactivity. A new presentation will be forthcoming.
What has been discussed so far is what Jane calls her work. She defines her career as what she does to share her work with others, referring mainly to the many gallery shows she has been in. Her decision has been to keep earning a living as an entirely separate category. Jane came to Chicago nineteen years ago to attend the Illinois Institute of Technology and later completed her Master of Science degree in photography at Circle Campus. Among her interesting earn-a-living activities, she particularly enjoys teaching, which she does for Circle Campus and other institutions.
She recently hosted a workshop on applying for art grants, and will be conducting a workshop early next year on how to take great slides of one’s work to use for jurying for shows, etc. These workshops are sponsored by NNWAC in coordination with the Illinois Art Council. In her spare time, Jane has been completely rehabbing one of the old houses in Wicker Park which she purchased eleven years ago. Her creative energies and processing are evident in this endeavor also. The building houses her studio/work area, which is an integral part of her living area. Her home was one of several on the recent tour of artists’ studios in the area. January/February ’87