Jane Dickson, 99¢ Dreams

Narrator: Jane Dickson based some of these paintings on photographs she had taken of Times Square during the 1980s.

Jane Dickson: I found bags and bags of negatives that I had not really looked at since I shot them. And once I started looking at them, I would remember that experience and go, I meant to do more with this. And actually, even though it’s forty years ago, you know, we don’t have amnesia. History is important. And these were done in the eighties. This was a different pandemic, but it was a pandemic. And it has things to say to this moment.

I decided I wanted to be a witness of my time and a witness not of the heroic moments. I feel like I’m more able to offer some fresh insights into the small moments and the overlooked, very everyday things that are such background that nobody thinks about it, you know, as you’re living it.

Narrator: In other paintings on view here, Dickson focused on the suburbs.

Jane Dickson: God knows they’re lonely in a different way, but profoundly lonely. One of my subjects is: how do spaces make you feel?

You don’t maybe think about it, but this is what you’re dealing with every day, are these non-places that are strictly designed for someone’s economic advantage. And we’re all trying to figure out how to wend our way through these worlds.