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New Zone attempts to bring delight,
artistry to Eugene with dada exhibit
Several local dada artists
contribute to the gallery
with pieces designed to
‘disgust or delight’ viewers
By Ryan Nyburg
Senior Pulse Reporter
As 1 stood in the gallery of the New
Zone Art Collective looking at a
bleeding revolver fastened to a din
ner plate by a giant nail, the question
"is this art?" ran around my brain.
How was your weekend?
The New Zone Collective was estab
lished in 1982 by a group of local
artists who wanted to foster experi
mental visual arts in Eugene. Their cur
rent showing is entitled "Nu: Dada
Lies, Deceptions and Rumors" and will
be running until Nov. 30. The exhibit
is centered around a collection of anti
art dada pieces put together by the col
lective's members and displayed for the
general disgust or delight of the view
ing public. I say "disgust or delight" be
cause dada is an an form that never
seems to be viewed with disinterest. Re
actions are never ambivalent.
The dada movement began in
Switzerland during World War I both
as an artistic protest to the war and the
perceived madness of the human race.
Dadaists believed that since life is with
out reason, why should art be?
The original dadaists, along with
their predecessors, created an art form
__ that defied
meaning,
REPORTER'S boundaries
and
com
* mon je_
cency. By
nature, this kind of anti-art defies criti
cism since it does not ask to be taken
on a technical level, but rather, on a
more abstract, instinctual one. Hence
the question, once again: Is this art?
1 would have to answer that it is.
Many of the pieces, particularly the
sculptures, look like the kinds of things
bored children put together out of bro
ken toys. But this is not to say that they
are amateurish. While someone might
look at a piece and say "Anybody could
do that," it only means they are play
ing into the dare posed by art forms
like dada, which is "If anyone can do
it, why aren't you?" Punk rock had the
same appeal musically, and in the
same way dada led to the more aca
demic surrealist movement, punk led
to a more artistically focused inde
pendent scene in the 1980s. Amazing
how these connections are made.
As for what the New Zone crew has
done, much of the work here carries
L
Lauren Wimer Photographer
Chris Surbaugh’s piece, ‘#2 Cycelust', is going for $99 at the New Zone Art Collective.
Lauren Wimer Photographer
James Rich's work ‘Eyes of the Beholder’ is one of several dada pieces on display at the
New Zone Art Collective. A group of local artists started the gallery in 1982.
on the same spirit of the original
dadaists, and a few of them rank up
there as truly inspired works. Shane A.
Fortner's "Silence in the Sound" is one
example. It consists of a pair of disem
bodied feet chained to a floor, with a
transparent sheet containing a poem
hanging above them. Like all good ab
surdist works, it defies real meaning
while courting around it and just bare
ly touches the edge of being defined.
The more humorous "From Pump
kins Came Barbies" created by Martin
Steiner is another nice piece. The title
ought to explain it well enough, and I
was gratified to see that he was asking
only $20. It's in my price range, but
I'm not sure where it would go in my
apartment.
Will Baby's "The Sword of Damo
coles" carries on the proud tradition
of war protest through absurdity (af
ter all, what two concepts fit together
better?). The piece is comprised of a
large bomb suspended over the heads
of a mother and child. Another good
piece by Wm. M. Baby (related to the
above artist perhaps?) is "Leave a Mes
sage ...," an answering machine with
a giant tack stuck through it. Once
again, great absurdist art.
Steve LaRiccia uses a more modem
medium with his "Dada-Self Copy," a
self-portrait made with a photocopi
er. Richard Pickering's "A Meeting" is a
spooky piece of work made up of
pieces of bone held to a chunk of
wood, like bugs in an entomology
display. Price tag: $1,000,000. Too
bad I don't get paid until the end of
the month.
The show's success can be measured
simply by the reactions of passersby.
Most people looked in, shook their
heads and walked away just a tad bit
faster. Not everyone though. While the
new Ken Kesey statue across the street
got a bigger audience while I was
there, New Zone had its share of inter
ested patrons. And deservedly so, as
the art collected for this show repre
sents an important cultural movement
— one that should not be ignored.
1 thought for a while that I might
even make my own contribution to
the show. 1 could stand in the window
with a title and a price tag on me and
see how people reacted. I obviously
didn't do it, which I guess goes to
show this isn't as easy as it looks.
The New Zone Art Collective is lo
cated at 1 E. Broadway.
Contact the senior Pulse reporter
at ryannyburg@dailyemerald.com.