VISUAL ARTS
BY ESTER BARKAI
BEAUTY AND
THE BODY
Julie Berkbuegler’s ‘Liquid Gold’
at Barn Light East
T
he idea of using found objects in art goes
back to the beginning of the modern era,
more than a hundred years ago, when
Marcel Duchamp entered a porcelain uri-
nal signed “R.Mutt” to be exhibited at the
Grand Central Palace in New York City.
Titled Fountain, Duchamp’s piece was rejected
by the exhibition committee but now is discussed in
art history texts in colleges across the country as a
fine example of conceptual art, marking a moment
when artists freed themselves from traditional
media.
“Liquid Gold,” a phrase used to describe
mother’s milk, is the title of Julie Berkbuegler’s
exhibit and also the inspiration for her color scheme.
By taking the paraphernalia she used for pumping
breast milk and including it in her artwork, strange
as it might seem, the artist is following a tradition
of modern art. If anyone is surprised or even
shocked by the subject matter, then that has more to
do with mainstream cultural norms than with those
of traditional approaches to art.
The works in the exhibit are hung on the wall
but are three-dimensional mixed media pieces.
Berkbuegler, who received her MFA from the
University of Oregon, has long been fascinated
with fashion. There is one artwork in her exhibit
that features images literally ripped from the pages
of the fashion world depicting women with their
breasts exposed.
It’s not uncommon to see such photographs in
fashion magazines. This particular work, though,
was the only one singled out and censored. That’s
because the Liquid Gold exhibit is hung in a gallery
adjoined to the café and bar at Barn Light East. The
gallery is not entirely separate, which means that art
norms bump up against mainstream cultural ones.
When the café hosted a one-year-old’s birthday
party, they covered up the artwork featuring the
half-naked fashion models.
Another artwork highlights a piece of draped
material. It is compositionally simple and elegant.
A piece of drapery is framed by a liquid-gold-
colored oval, elaborately surrounded by glittered
resin. If it wasn’t for the artist’s statement, I’m not
sure I would have been able to identify the draped
material as a bra, much less one used for pumping
milk. I saw it as an appropriate subject for framing,
a bit of folded fabric the type you might see in a
drapery study or set up in a still life.
Before moving to Eugene, Berkbuegler was
a graphic artist working in New York City where
she worked for L’Oréal as a graphic designer. She
designed packaging and saw to it that the models
on the package were picture perfect. Sometimes the
job required her to airbrush away imperfections, or
what were thought of as imperfections.
This smoothing, or making pretty, can be likened
to what she is doing here with Liquid Gold. She has
made something pretty from objects normally used
in private, away from the public eye. She has made
us want to look — and by looking, maybe consider
the imperfections or inconsistencies in our culture.
Liquid Gold is presented by Eugene Contemporary Art and host-
ed by Barn Light East, 545 E. Eighth Avenue. It runs through
April 30.
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A pril 20, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com