Jackie Chang - Brooklyn, NY
2012 Artist in Residence
Artist Jackie Chang works in Public Art because what interests her most is the human experience.
In her residency at McColl Center in 2012 she was able to engage with the public, creating a dialogue about her work that served to inform the concepts she was working on for the LYNX Blue Line Extension JW Clay and University City Boulevard Stations. Her work is meant to conceptually challenge the viewer; to make them think about words and our human relationship to them. Making her a natural artist to be in residence at McColl Center, where part of the artist's role is to be open to engaging with the public.
The use of text in Chang's work is important to the artist on a variety of levels. Personally, it is important because it is tied to her childhood. An immigrant from China, Chang's first language is Chinese and as she came to the US and learned to speak and read English, she noted that her initial communication was through characters; and characters are essentially pictures that stand for whole words. You see this concept of word and picture reiterated in her public art works throughout the country.
While in residence at McColl Center, Jackie had the opportunity to share stories like these with the charlotte community through Open Studio Days, interviews with the local media, Community meetings and Artist Talks. She was able to spend some time in the University City Area where her two stations reside and experience the changing demographics and increasingly diverse population and culture. Jackie responded to this and said in an interview that this is partly why she creates public art; She said, "I don't want to create work for a gallery, everyone should be able to see my work."
