Wavelength VIDA SAČIĆ
The exhibition "Wavelength," showcased at Flora Gallery in Dubrovnik, explores identity within the community through my works on paper, in which I have often explored themes of gender, labor, and the immigrant experience in the United States. My journey began in 1998 when I moved alone from Croatia to the American Midwest, a pivotal transition for me as a teenager that profoundly shaped my life and artistic practice.
In my work, I employ typography to challenge language's conventional meanings. I meticulously craft each piece using my Vendercook printing press and moveable type. Creating these prints is not merely a technical exercise but a deliberate engagement with historical narratives and the tools used to produce them through personal reflections that often elude established records. My past sources have mostly been carefully selected historical narratives that have escaped traditional archives. However, in this exhibition, I focused on my contemporaries.
Designed specifically for the Flora Gallery, the exhibition unfolds as a site-specific installation where each print is conceived as a unique component contributing to a larger narrative. Some prints feature my own writings, hand-set in small metal type. However, the majority of the prints feature large wood-type impressions of conversations gathered through studio visits with contemporary Chicago artists whose voices are elevated to be included in the exhibition space. As the editor and printer of the work, my role looms over the content. All of the conversations were conducted in May and June of 2024. By undertaking the process of gathering, selecting, and hand-printing fragments from conversations, I question representation and the potential for distortion, courting oversimplification while embracing absurdity.
The informality of the studio visits with the artists was integral to the work as we connected through both humor and meaningful dialogues. Engaging in candid conversations, I captured moments and insights in handwritten notes and covert photographs taken with my phone. I often found myself on the same wavelength with whom I spoke, only to lose that connection and work again to reestablish it. That process became a part of my project and something I am looking to extend to the audience as they engage with the work. Selecting words and phrases from these interactions, I incorporated them into my prints using moveable wood type, creating a visual tapestry that visually unifies the perspectives. However, when one engages with reading, the unity falls into question as the words open space for more questioning than explanations.
Through these intentional acts of dialogue-building with the audience, I sought to bridge geographical distances and forge tangible connections between artists and audiences. Exhibiting prints on paper affirms their existence as objects and insists on physicality and tactile engagement, underscoring the transformative potential of personal interactions, particularly in an era dominated by digital communication. Despite the logistical challenges posed by the pandemic, which underscored the fragility of conventional archival practices and heightened our reliance on digital mediums, my project reimagines the art of documentation through intimate, face-to-face engagements. This approach emphasizes the continued importance of building personal understandings across diverse backgrounds and locales. The resulting interactions offer a possibility for the establishment of deeper connections between the artistic communities involved as well as their audiences.
- Vida Sačić
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Participating artists:
- Hale Ekinci
- Yoonshin Park
- Jaclyn Jacunski
- Dushko Petrovich
- Kushala Vora
- Michelle Marie Murphy (MMM)
- Sonya Bogdanova
- Millicent Kennedy
- Latam Zearfoss
- Joshua Taylor
- Charles Ryan Long
- Aya Nakamura
- Kristin Abhalter Smith
- Tulika Ladsariya
visits are ongoing
Vida Sačić (b. Croatia, living in America since 1998)
Vida Sačić is a Chicago-based typographer and a multidisciplinary artist. Her work explores gender, immigration, and labor, primarily using print media. Sačić has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at DeVos Art Museum (MI), Art Mora Gallery (NYC/NJ), and The Center for Book Arts (NYC). She actively exhibits in Chicago, with recent exhibitions at Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago), Co-Prosperity (Chicago), and Public Works Gallery (Chicago). Sačić has worked on long-term projects at Tiporenesansa Studio (Slovenia) and The Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum (Wisconsin). She has been an Artist-in-Residence at The Penland School of Art and Craft (North Carolina) and The Center for Book and Paper Arts (Chicago), among others. Her works are a part of numerous private and public collections, including the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art (Indiana), the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at Rochester Institute of Technology (New York), and the Newberry Library (Chicago). Her large-scale works will be included in the exhibition of printing by and for immigrant communities, which is currently being developed by the Newberry Library, with support from the Terra Foundation.Sačić is an active member of the Chicago art community and has been a lecturer, panelist, and curator of exhibitions focused on building international connections, particularly focusing on Southeastern Europe. She has worked with and held leadership positions in many Chicago organizations, including the Society of Typographic Arts (STA), AIGA, Spudnik Press, and Roman Susan Gallery. Her artistic practice is complemented and tied to her work as an educator, with a particular commitment to working with first-generation, immigrant, and working-class artists. She has authored the BFA program in Graphic Design at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, where she has been awarded tenure and teaches at the rank of Professor.
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