The faculty exhibition “18 Points of View” at the University of Oregon Museum of Art offers
students a look at the instructors’ talent and a deeper understanding of the individuals.
By Sara Jarrett
Oregon Daily Emerald
The fine and applied arts faculty exhibi
tion “18 Points of View,” currently on dis
play at the University of Oregon Museum
of Art, serves as more than a vehicle for
validating the exhibitors’ knowledge of
fine and applied art. The show is also a
means for these educators to share their tal
ent.
“I think this faculty show is one of the
strongest in years,” said Dora Natella facility
member and presenting artist.
The works also provide an understanding
of “a completely different side to the person
that I deal with in the classroom,” said
Matthew Farrell, a first term fine arts major
and one of Natella’s students.
“Whether I like [her work] or not isn’t the
point,” he added. “Just to know that she’s
currently working on something makes me
more receptive to her as an artist. It makes
the experience of being in her classroom
more dynamic.”
Walking into the museum, one gets an
overwhelming sense of creative energy per
meating the floors and bouncing off the
walls. Natella’s two sculptures in the faculty
exhibit are part of a 12-piece series that pre
miered in 1998 at Pacific Northwest College
of Art’s Feldman Gallery. She actually start
ed the series, however, during a Fulbright
Lecturing/Researching Award in 1997 in
her birthplace, Venezuela.
What is so captivating about Natella’s in
stallments is the display of spiritual, female
vitality.
‘“L ‘Uovo,’ (The Eggjfor example, looks
rooted, as if the figure, crouching in a fetal
position on a bed of sand, is searching for
her own origins and roots in space,” Natella
explained.
The construction process of “L ‘Uovo” is
interesting, she said. After taking the first
mold of a hired model, something hap
pened to the cast and only the torso could
be salvaged. In the end, Natella’s used cast
• ings of her own limbs to finish the full-sized
image because she couldn’t find the model
again.
“It is literally the union of two bodies — a
major sculpture plastic surgery,” she said.
Her second piece on display, titled
“Cruz” (Cross), addresses cultural restraint
on individuals. It is the figure of a female in
a crucifixion position, bound by wooden
planks.
Natella said'her fascination with the hu
man figure began when she studied ballet
in her youth. The stark whiteness of her
sculptures, achieved by layers of car paint,
is actually inspired by the Japanese modem
dance form, Butoh, in which the dancers
cover themselves in white powder and ex
plore the subtle gestural complicities of the
human body.
Natella said she is not a fanatic feminist,
but she has endured enough sexual dis
crimination in her life to be influenced by
the turmoil and uneasiness she has felt be
cause of such actions.
“I’m a woman, but more
than a woman, I’m an indi
vidual,” she said. “I’m
looking to free myself — to
earn my place as an indi
vidual in society.”
Addressing a different
type of voyage, Margaret
Prentice shows four in
stallments of an exhibit ti
tled “Journey There Too.”
The 18-piece work pre
miered in 1994 at the Ino
Cho Paper Museum in the
city of Kochi during a Japan Foundation
Fellowship Gran. The works, she ex
plained, are visual poems with allusions to
the Eastern religious notions of reincarna
tion and Karma combined with Christiani
ty
“Our actions now have an affect that con
tinues with us,” she said.
This orthodoxy resonates throughout her
work. Each installment seems to show dif
ferent paths leading to the same destination.
They act as a portal, a window into another
space, Prentice said.
Turn to Exhibition, Page 7B
Courtesy
“At Once” by Laura Vandenburgh, done in pencil, gouache and wood.
“The Keeping of Record #26” by Dan Powell, done in toned silver print and diptych.
:esy
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Saturday, October 30th at 0:00 u.m
After the game, come to David Spade
007686
Reserved Seating Tickets:
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