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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1976)
Manifestations of HER In observance of International Women’s Day To be continued in Surface and Symbol, March 11 Symbolism of flight, opportunities for freedom Right at this very moment there is a small piece of Los Angeles hung inside our Museum of Art, and I like it. But perhaps that's due more to my perversity than the work of Janet MacKaig, the photographer whose work is now hung there. You see. I'm a writer. ; Sure, I dabble in photography, have for years, but I'm a writer and try to create pictures with words. By JOHN LOEBER Of the Emerald And MacKaig is a photographer. But her work is different—she takes pictures of words. Like the graffiti found in alleys and on the sides of carwashes all over the Chicano section of Los Angeles. So the peculiar perversions which drive me to write are soundly struck by her work. Janet McKaig is, above all else, concerned with communication to us of what she sees in the world. If this is the ex pressiveness her female nature brings us, of concrete ideas rather than abstractions, I like it, and need it. As soon as I turned the corner entering the photo gallery I was struck by it—a wall of graffiti hang ing where I expected to see pic tures. You see, these aren’t pic tures like you expect to see in a photo exhibit, because most are not even on paper. They’re pro duced by soaking canvas in photo-emulsion fluid and then ex posing them. Very touchy busi ness I assure you. Touchy for two reasons: one is that it's a tricky process to get used to, at least it was when I used to try it with rocks, and two is they're fun to touch. MacKaig doesn’t just try for texture, she virtually throws it at you. Now this isn’t what most people think of as photography, but it's certainly valid—as long as the val idity of art comes from its ability to make someone feel something. I must say the absence of Chicanos lounging around the smog browned air of a hot sidewalk in L. A. kept me from really empathiz ing with what MacKaig was trying to do, but I felt more than enough to write about. You see. MacKaig has left the world of fine art and entered the world of documentary Her art isn’t based in what she did but what the writers of the graffiti did. In fact she is getting close to exiting the world of photography exemplified by the works of W. Eugene Smith or Gordon Parks, who also recreate the moods of America's cities. On this point, there’s an interesting comment well worth reading in the book of comments located in the photo gallery that talks about the vi brancy of one folk art (photo graphy) capturing another (graf fiti). One of my favorites in this show is her series of four works called “Cul-de-sac,” which show a care ful manipulation of dimension. Some of them are nice blendings of three dimensions through the overlay of vines on walls and planes through walls on walls, giv ing something of a true feeling of actually being lost-tired in a muggy L.A. rut. The next in line is a picture of a dead bird at “936 Geraghty.” A photograph of freedom killed and overpowered by the hard graphics of a bold cross. MacKaig knows full well the symbolism of flight and the opportunities for freedom in photography and she has cut both of them quite short, as short as the growth left open to the people she is depicting. Next to this hangs the “Steps on Brooklyn Avenue in East Los Angeles.' A vivid graphic n E3AGDD610ie GAPE CLASSIC CUISINE/ INFORMAL CHARM luncheon dinner 754 East 13th Avenue Eugene. Oregon 97401 Telephone (503) 342-6963 shot of steps leading us down, down, down to a cow—a dumb stupid, contented cow with a regimented feeding, soullessly contented, pacified cow. She's got a lot more here, but if you need to hear about it I suggest you go see it. It's only fair—not all of her pictures are of words, so not all of my words will be of pictures. Over all, Janet MacKaig s work is the most fitting display for our Museum of Art I have vet seen. The first work encountered by the intrepid purveyor is titled “Cul-de-sac,” an apt description of the gallery itself. I don't want to vitiate MacKaig s work by men tioning this sort of sordid detail, but it is unavoidable. The gallery itself has already done violence to her work in a number of ways—such as providing the poorest lighting imaginable for any display of art (a matter of monev unfortunately), and sec ondly by taking the trouble to split series of images into non sequential sub-units. I suppose the powers-that-be thought Mac Kaig could use a little help by pro viding the casual viewer an en ticement to enter the little alleyway the photos are stored in, but it is certainly too bad the only woman's view of photography we II see this year has to be chop ped up by picture hangers. ‘A search, not a discovery’ The Woman Alone Patricia O’Brien ©1973 Quadrangle The New York Times Book Co. The first time I heard of Patricia O'Brien was last February, when the School of Journalism invited her to participate in the annual Oregon Newspaper Pub lishers' Association News-Editorial Conference O Brien was a University of Oregon J-school graduate, now on the staff of the Chicago Sun Times. By JENIFER BLUMBERG Of the Emerald The title of her speech fit right in with the attitudes of too many journalists, the J-school faculty being no exception. “Women in Journalism — What Next?' With a title like that, I wasn't expecting much from the talk, but thought I d give it a listen anyway. My willingness to take a chance was rewarded. From the minute O’Brien stepped up to the podium, I was enthused. Besides being an extremely compe tent journalist (O’Brien was formerly a member of the Sun-Times editorial board, and after completing a Nieman Fellowship in journalism at Harvard, asked to be moved onto the news side staff, where she wrote numerous in-depth stories, many dealing with the concerns of women), the lady was vibrant, pleas ant and eloquent. She spoke to Oregon newspaper editors “Listen well when women come to you asking for jobs"; she spoke to aspiring journalists, telling them to take every opportunity offered, for experience is always valuable; she spoke of the ecstasies and agonies of her chosen profession, and she spoke of the title given her speech. Noting the fact that it could be taken two ways, she smiled and said “I prefer to call it ‘Women in Jour nalism — What Comes Next?’ ” And her anticipation of what will come next was very optimistic. She sees the need for more women in the newsroom, feeling that women have the ability to change a lot of the misconceptions and misin terpretations the male-dominated profession has perpetuated. Interested in what she had to say, I purchased a book she had written, mentioned during her talk. ' The Woman Alone,' is, in O’Brien's own words, “. . .a personal book; a question book, not an answer book; a search, not a discovery... I have tried to write about the experience of being female from the per spective of women alone—drawing first on my own experience and then moving the focus to the lives of the women I searched out, the single, widowed, and divorced women of this country, women without men. who want and need as much as anyone else to be part of a whole, not just fragments isolated from society and from one another. She has tried, and she has succeeded beautifully The book begins with a moving insight into O'Brien's life and her decision to live away from her husband and four children for two years, and expands into interviews with other women who have found them selves alone in a society where women alone are seen as outcasts or at the least, a bit strange The book is written from the perspective of a jour nalist and a woman, and it proves to be an outstand ing combination. O Brien has a fine sense for finding humor in a situation, and an even finer sense for seeing through the bullshit and rhetoric to what is really there. Recalling her Catholic upbringing, she writes "We grew up feeling sorry for Protestants. Sorry for peo ple with only one arm or one leg.Sorry for dead cats in the road Magnanimity came easy, but no authentic compassion and understanding; these virtues were reserved to God, who had need of them in dealing with all the sinful people in the world. We grew to adulthood, untouched and untouching. Much of the book deals with middle-aged women who have been thrown into a life alone, unprepared and unsuspecting. For those choosing a single life style at an early age, these parts of the book won t hrt really close to home, but I'm sure there are a lot of mothers out there who would not mind receiving an already-read gift.. In the preface to her book O'Brien states, I cannot offer a neat package of conclusions because I have not found all the answers for my own life, not do I think what might be right for me would be right for all women...I would like to think that what I learned about them (women alone), and about myself, can mean something important to women, married and single, and also to men, who are and always will be part of any whole world we might hope to have. Because of persons like O'Brien who enrich the lives of others through the manifestations of her self, it seems inevitable that we are coming closer to that “world we might hope to have. SOPHOMORES OF G Phi B: Thanks for working so hard - everything turned outgreat' 0099 8 NEED A CHRISTIAN GIFT? Posters pictures plaques, jewelry and more See them at Berean Church Supply 1675 West 11th 344-2229 Supply. 1675 West 11th 344-2229 10039:Sb WAIT Until you've heard Frank Church. 0054:15 A GOOD REVIEW FOR FINALS: Check out the Id for the most complete selection of study guides in the West. The Id The Campus Book & Recod Shop 1340 Alder 13272:9 STEVE ML M.-Where are you? I miss you River Woman. 0111:10 CAROLYN- Have the happiest Birthday ever Smile, be good Love Rob 0112:8 TIME TO RELAX? 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