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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (April 14, 2011)
visual arts BY DANTE ZUÑIGA-WEST Congolese man ready to fi ght Nine-year-Old - Keeper of the Fire A Congolese man grabs his stick sword during a fi ght over buckets. An aid group brought buckets and water tablets to teach how to purify water but a fi ght broke out of the desired buckets forcing the aid group to run. Berrlyze blows on a cooking fi re in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She and her family have fl ed from their home 3 separate times when soldiers took over the village by force. Photo Realism War and your iPhone S he is a reserved looking woman whose scruffy black lapdog was not permitted into the restaurant where we met for the interview. We sit outside talking and within a few moments I begin to get a better understanding of photojournalist Sherrlyn Borkgren . “When the road is vibrating under you from an RPG blast, anything you thought you were brave about goes away,” she says, in a statement that sounds like it should be coming from the mouth of a scar-faced battle-hardened war vet. She grins then adds, “I’m thinking — they’re shooting at me — quick, stand up and take pictures!” Borkgren is a veteran in her own right, she has seen combat on many occasions. Carrying her camera through voluntary tours of duty in Iraq, the Congo and South America, she did it for the stories, and these stories have returned with her. Friday, April 15 at the Oregon Arts Alliance, Borgkren’s multimedia journalism slideshow will be showcased, bringing battlefi elds of Iraq and paramilitary confl icts of the Congo to Eugene. Though her website declares her to be both a “real person” as well as a “real photographer,” Borgkren is even more principally a passionate artist-citizen. The content of her photographs refl ect this. While she is full of action-packed eyewitness accounts, such as getting ambushed alongside American soldiers on patrol in Baghdad or being too close to a running gunfi ght in the streets of Guatemala, Borgkren seems driven by a calm and resolute humanist prerogative to inform her countrymen/women of realities we would otherwise never be exposed to. “Do you know what they call cell phones in the Congo?” she asks me. I admit my www.cousinjackspasty.com FROZEN PASTY TO GO at Saturday Farmer’s Market 8th & Oak • 9am-4pm HOT PASTY & A PINT at Ninkasi Tasting Room 541-686-3211 1333 W. 2nd Alley CHECK THE FREEZER AISLE AT YOUR LOCAL NATURAL FOOD STORE traveling soon? medical advice for global travelers t he t ravel c linic John D. Wilson, M.D. 1200 Hilyard St., Suite S-560 541/343-6028 www.TravelClinicOregon.com Questions? Email us at travelclinicoregon.343-6028@gmail.com Questions? Email us at travelclinic3436028 @ gmail.com 24 APRIL 14, 2011 EUGENE WEEKLY very American ignorance regarding this topic and she proceeds to educate: “They call them blood phones because over there, the mineral that the militias fi ght for control over is used mostly in cell phones.” This mineral, coltran, is also used in videogame systems, DVD players and computers. Borkgren taught me that; her black and white pictures of fi erce-looking armed men from the Congo teach me what the inside of my iPhone looks like from a whole other perspective. I ask her about Latin America, and she talks to me about her trip to Mexico, where she photographed incarcerated teenagers. “It’s incredible what people can adapt to. You have to just really see it to understand.” She has captured these sights for her viewers, so that they may see and understand. The images haunt and shout; they are beautiful, touching and scary. Her slideshow is not to be missed. Iraq to Congo Multimedia Journalism Slide Show at the Oregon Arts Alliance, runs from 7 to 9 pm Friday, April 15; $2 - $10 sliding scale. VIPERTOONS PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS marcia ball 7-time Blues Music Award Winner “rollicking, playful, good time blues” Rolling Stone Cozmic Pizza Saturday, 199 W 8th Ave, Eugene April 16, 8:30 pm Opening act: $23 advance | $25 door The Vipers featuring Deb Cleveland Advance tickets on sale at CD World, House of Records and Museum of Unfi ne Art & Record Store vipertoons.com Coming Wednesday, May 4 at Cozmic Pizza Texas Bluesman Andrew Jr. Boy Jones WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
