Jell-0 breaks out of its mold at art show
By Meg Dedolph
!t wiggles, it jiggles, and it's cool and fruitv.
It's eaten by children at summer camps, and
sneered at by gourmets, except when they call
it aspic and make it from vegetables It's a sta
ph* on hospital trays and Midwestern buffet
tables where it's cherry or strawberry, made
in a Tupperware mold and mixed with
canned fruit cocktail or sliced bananas
It may be colorful, it may be malleable, but
is Jell-O art7 Eugene's Radar Angels would
have you think so. The Radar Angels are the
collective mind behind Eugene's sixth Joll-O
Art Show and Tackv Food Buffet
The Radar Angels are a women's group
that’s existed since t*)7tt. when memfiers from
three other women's groups m« t to have a
"frivolous tea," said member Indrn Stern YVe
dressed up in strange outfits and startl'd shar
ing fantasies and ideas The fell-O Art Show
was one event "
Stern said the first Jell-O Art Show came
after an especially long Eugene winter with
lots of rain in the mid- lOHiis.
"YVe pulled the first show together in two
and a half weeks, but rio gallery would take
us. They thought, ’Jell-O, what it mess!’ "
But finally, the New Zone Gallery agreed
to host the first show, which was a huge sm
cess, she said After the first year, other gal
leries asked to host subsequent shows
’ Gist year, we didn't have one liet ause of
illnesses among the members," Stern said.
"People I didn't even know would come up
to me in the supermarket and say. YVhen am
you going to have a Jell-O show?' "
The show, which was a fund raiser for the
Maude Kerns Art Center, featured not only
gelatinous art but live music by Hoof and •
performance by the Radar Angels, which
depicted, through both song and monologue,
famous "Jell-O Babes" from history.
The tacky food buffet, also a staple of the
evening, leaned heavily toward food kids
might relish, which Stern said was normal.
"Nine-tenths of this will lie oaten by the
children who come here," she said. "Cheez
YVhiz will end up here tonight, and food with
colors that are non-realistic. You don't gen
erally find food in the wild that's this vibrant."
The buffet table, once fully laden, held yel
low and pink sugared marshmallow Faster
i matures, powdered pink doiiglinut holes,
crust less cucumber tea sandwiches with green
olives, pimentos intact, and pink and white
frosted animal crackers
For tJie more adventurous, there were
Fruity Pebble marshmallow bars, meringue
swirls dusted with pink, green, yellow or blue
r
straws, blue kool Aid. and a tutti-frutti Jell
O loaf, contributed by Nam \ Si h a for Thu
loaf had two layers of blue and green Jell-O,
separated by banana siand scrambled
eggs and garnished with Choerios
"It'sgood." Schafer said "I even tried a lit
tle piece,"
Schafer’s contribution to the art show,
spawned of her "warper! am! twisted imagi
nation. she said, was titled 'Jell-O Molds'1
and took its inspiration not from the wobbly,
fruitv rings found at family picnii s. but the
white furrv hlotis found in dark refrigerator
comers
Her pus e consist is! of n group of Petri dish
es. eo< h with a different mold and a label Vis
itors could use a magnifying glass to exam
ine "lell-Othat fell on the floor," "Bathroom
sink stuff." "Yogurt — good bacteria gone
bad.” "Compost bucket tea ." or "The stuff
that gets past the sink strainer, but not the
drain," as well os three or four other mptal
ly sour-smelling specimens.
‘It's a great opportunity to
not take life seriously...
and embarrass my chil
dren.’
Nancy Schafer
Jell 0 Artist
Schafer, who is a jeweler, has entered
puses in five Jell-O shows, and said she likes
working with a material that doesn’t last
"It's a great opportunity to not take life seri
ously," she said. "And embarrass my chil
dren. I have two. 18 and 21, and they've often
wondered out loud why they can't have a nor
mal mom."
The Radar Angels' families tend to lie for
giving when it comes to things like Jell-O art
Joan Cold (iypress, who entered a piece called
"Holy Mackerel.” an orange Jell-O fish dec
orated with religious paraphernalia, said she
had a very supportive family
"I came all the way from Tennessee," said
Shirley Gold, her mother "i think it's a lot of
fun. more fun than I'd have at home "
The coincidence of April Fools' Day and
Good Friday might have been the reason for
the number of Jell-O works with religious
themes, including "Christ's last supper on a
TV tray," by Pam Sherman, a Hull Center
stagehand.
Sherman said her dinner of gelatinous
spaghetti and wine was "what he (CJirist) real
ly had a ft »♦ r the disciples went horm* "
Sherman combined the dinner with
■Jellovision.'' an empty TV cabinet which
held a tilled fish tank filled with blue Jell
0 A t.ijw player Itehind the TV provided the
sound offer ts taped soap opera dialogues
Sherman said "lellovision" was a regular
feature at the show, with changing sound
tracks each year
"Tile first year," Stern said, "it was set up
in a little alcove, and people would he sit
ting and chatting, and gradually conversa
tion would die off and people would start
staring at it |iist like when they watch the
Ixioh tula
"The U-st |>art was w hen there were these
two kids sitting there, and one said to the oth
er. "Go on. change the i hanntil,' and the oth
er said. I don't think you i an .' Then the tape
got to the end and started over, and the kids
said. 'Oh. that was just on,'
One of the newcomers to the show this year
was Itxal artist Mike Randies, who brought a
4by-3 foot painting and i lilies of green, red
and orange Jell-O for visitors to throw at the
1 am.is
Randles spent some time throwing Jell O
himself, wondering aloud if it (night stii k
to the painting better if the Jell-O were
warmer fits bhn k sporti oat flapped and one
foot < ante off the ground as he burled the
cubes at the canvas
"This is the first time I've ever gelatmat
ed," Randles said. "1 was a salad i hef and I
used to have to make }elM) at this density for
these really absurdist, elitist desserts, like
baked Alaska, where the middle was all flam
heed and it was surrounded by Jell-O," be
said
"We used to get into Jell-O fights back in
the salad chef area and I nut it ed it used to
stick to the walls and quiver,” be said
Unlike Randles. Fugene resident |olm Han
guess is a regular at the Jell-O art shows
"I like the people who turn out for these
things," he said. "They’re friends and
acquamtani es of mine and remnants of the
arts community that used to In* more promi
nent in Fugene and l*x ame more submerged.
Hauguess said
That evening, the Radar Angels' portrayed
Marie Curie as a |ell O melting scientist mid
Mu haehmgelo as the lirst Jell-O sculptor
People came, throw Jell-O, laughed at the art,
ate tin k\ loud and petted the wandering dog
who arrived near the end of the evening
If Eugene's art community really is sub
merged, as Hauguess said, the sixth Jell-O Art
Show and Tat ky Food Huffet might have tieen
the place where it came up for a breath of air
<?„0&0L
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Please bring current student I.
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Christianity And Artistic Creativity
A Symposium iponsoerd by I hr Ira (iaiion Bequest
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FILMS both in 100 Willamette, 1371 F. 13th Ait
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