Wanderlust

Up to now, drawings serve artists as the most effec­tive medium to reflect their ideas. In the works of Wanda Stang, hand drawing parti­cu­raly func­tions as an important medium, used to capture her thoughts and visions. The expe­ri­mental character of drawing allows her to diver­sify between diffe­rent levels of sensa­tion, explo­ra­tion and invention. 

Since 2010, Wanda Stang has created works which are inspired by the literary classic “Around the World in 80 Days” by Jules Verne, forming the core of her multi­layered oeuvre of drawings, perfor­mances, objects and instal­la­tions. Verne’s belief in progress, his visio­nary ideas and the essence of Roman­ti­cism have exerted a strong impres­sion on the artist. This series of artworks is prima­rily based on illus­tra­tion and an artistic exami­na­tion influ­enced by nature. Through her original style of working, Stang succeeds in build a connec­tion with almost all cultures of the world.  

Besides her surreal pain­tings, which are shaped by her encoun­ters with young cosmo­po­litan people from the four corners of the globe, her Gesamt­kunst­werk called “Wander­lust” repres­ents a new approach. Her works, as well as being created on paper or canvas, are now being deve­l­oped into three-dimensional paper works in-situ. The fusion of dreams with reality allows for the possi­bi­lity for surreal space to become ambi­guous and unique. While Stang deve­lops an imagi­na­tive world based on the descrip­tions of jour­neys by people whom she met perso­nally, she also uses hand­made clot­hing to stimu­late a new patterns of thin­king and design. Visi­tors to the exhi­bi­tion will be part of her site-specific instal­la­tion. On one hand they can wander through the thoughts and expe­ri­ences of the artist and her prot­ago­nists, and on the other hand, with the aero­dy­namic object called “Skyward Balloon”, they also can find their asso­cia­tions with which they can relate to this created piece.  

Wanda Stang is currently a Meis­ter­schüler of Prof. Tristan Pranyko at the Univer­sity of Art Berlin-Weißensee, where she graduated from classes of pain­ting, textiles and surface design. Before that she completed her studies in Pain­ting and Pedagogy for Waldorf schools as well as the studies of Fine Arts in Baden Würt­tem­berg. From 2006 to 2007 she was involved in the resto­ra­tion work for the re-opening of the New Museum in Berlin. In 2011 her path led her to London, where she was involved in prepa­ring the Paris Fashion Show for Alex­ander McQueen. Back in Berlin, she parti­ci­pated in solo and group exhi­bi­tions and now dedi­cates herself to the produc­tion of her first major solo show.

(Text by Nicole Loeser)