What's happening., August 13, 1987, Image 1

(
Vol. VI No. 30
Serving Eugene, Springfield & Lane County Since 1982
Aug. 13-19, 1987
MAGAZINj
PAMPH
7 I
I DOES NOT
CIRCULATE
y _
b
i
)
Guide to Local Arts, Entertainment & Events
)
freed
INSIDE:
• International Film Festival
• Riverfront Research Park
• Eat Beat—Picnic Pleasures
• Film: Prick Up Your Ears; Nineteen Nineteen;
Tangos, The Exile of Gardel
• Sports: A woman behind the plate 2]
• Art: Portlanders at New Zone
• Harmonic Convergence
J
\C
1AUGz.
** 1.-2 -
"Pierre 'Mas Here"' by Barbara Elam Dimock
Four Artists at Maude Kerns
by Elizabeth Brinton
Fred Byrum
Four interesting artists are
now showing at Maude Kerns
Art Center through August
23rd. In the small mezzanine
and loft gallery, platinum print
portraits by Fred Byrum are ex
hibited. The intimacy of this
small gallery area fits the show.
Byrum either has many unusual
looking friends, or (I suspect) a
knack for bringing out the odd,
sinister, scary, sweet edge of in
tensity in people's faces. The
platinum print used in the early
days of photography provides
for soft modeling and brings
out subtle tonal ranges in the
faces, clearly lending itself to
Byrum's content. Fred Byrum
learned photography at Maude
Kerns Center. He is now living
in Seattle, and working on a
book of his photographs.
Susan Aurand '
On the walls of the main
gallery are very large charcoal
drawings by Susan Aurand.
These pictures juxtapose life
sized children with huge plants
and tropical birds. These fan
tasies are realistic in their
execution and are well done.
Aurand says that in these works
she is "speculating on what it is
to be a person and on the pos
sibilities of transformation and
transfiguration.”
In the piece titled "No
One Could Account For It," a
small girl sits amid the flutter of
two huge birds. The child alone
in this picture would make a
wonderful drawing—when it
comes to transformation, the
pure image of a child is suffi
cient message. Aurand’s chil
dren display the combination of
grace and awkwardness, of
wonderment and implacability
that surround human trans
formation. The birds and plants
in the drawings seem super
fluous, like decorations on the
more fundamental strengths in
Aurand’s imagery.
In the "Chambered Nauti
lus" drawings Aurand works in
a format which is a bit smaller
and more accessible. Without
the combination of imagery,
these works come across with
more clarity and sincerity than
do the other pieces.
Clayton Thiel
Also showing in the main
gallery are ceramic sculptures
by Clayton Thiel. All of Thiel's
works have a shrine-like look to
them, and retain an undeniably
rich sense of humor. In "Ollie’s
Elegy" actual dollar bills lami
nated to the surface seem to
swarm up and down over a
tower form. Towers, shrines,
spires, and trains are all central
subjects in Thiel’s work. These
objects appear as ancient and
oddly futuristic totems to
changing values. Rich rock-like
surfaces are incised and glazed
in soft and earthy colors. There
are petroglyphic and hiero
Continued on page 10