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Ron
Zajac
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Both Illig and Zajac emulate filmmaking, yet they use drastically differing means. In "Trained and Used" (1985), Ron Zajac shows two women physically sharing the same space yet mentally separate. The identical position of the hand on each figure immediately links them to a common story line, like subsequent frames in a series of film stills. Psychological tension and ambiguity unfold in the exaggerated facial expressions of these characters, portraying the female image as dramatic and hysterical. The "hysterical female" and the "female as victim" are timeless images portrayed by popular culture. |
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In
"Betrayal"
(1982), the vulnerable nude female evokes a sympathetic response from the viewer.
The woman, with a reckoning brow, ponders feelings of "betrayal." She is shamefully
postured in the foreground, breast revealed. She is baring her guilt, almost regretfully.
Zajac plays on our assumptions, cunningly positioning the viewer as an essential element
in the completion of this piece.
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Zajac celebrates the intrinsic connection of the female to the natural world in "Assembly of the Priestess" (1998). The artist uses scale to equate the woman to the nature around her. He is commenting on the role of the woman as a fruitful being. The small feline, a symbol of the animal kingdom, joins the woman as a fellow creator of the natural world.
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Beginning of the Exhibition
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