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Visual Art: Dance: Morsels:
Metaphor
for Love
Migrations of the Heart: New Ceramics by Hank Murrow at White Lotus Gallery, through March 2, 2004. A couple of migratory birds emerge from storm clouds, flying high above a snowy landscape with rolling hills, heading toward a dark unfrozen lake. Where the snow is thinner, a reddish earth is revealed. The birds are lovers. Their story is made not of words, but clay and glaze. Hank Murrow's recent work, "Migrations of the Heart," is metaphorical in nature. It is also an open-ended narrative on the theme of romantic love told through a series of ceramic wall-plaques. Each tile is itself a mini-story representing one of the myriad possibilities and configurations in the dance of love and courtship. Each reflects a moment in time, only hinting at what may happen next. "These are speculations about love stories," Murrow said. "We're wondering how it will turn out for each of these lovers. Allusion is one of the qualities that I court in my work. I don't like when things are spelled out." This body of work began as a "study of romantic relationships using the migration of geese and cranes as central metaphor" conducted on pottery: platters, trays, bowls, jars, vases, some of which are on display. Soon however, Murrow shifted to medium- and large-format tiles as support. "With pottery," he explained, "the story is just impressed on a form. By getting rid of the form and using a flat surface instead, everything serves the metaphor, and the story can expand." All the tiles represent aerial views of gently rolling terrain. "These are highly eroded soft forms," Murrow said, "a landscape of rolling hills such as you can find in Eastern Oregon by Snake River Canyon." They evoke a soft feminine earth, sometimes erotically so. Turn #11 counterclockwise once and you'll notice a stylized cream-colored female torso, with two birds entering the cleavage between rounded breasts and heading toward a dark pubis. #3 offers a similar but coppery torso, with a white-lace ribbon over the breasts and birds heading between them toward a jewel-like navel. The tiles share as vocabulary a number of elements functioning variously combined to recreate the different stories of romance. The avian lovers may fly side by side, toward each other, or follow each other at a distance. Sometimes they are complemented by a flock of birds but are not part of it. The lake, a recurrent motif, is small, teardrop-shaped and dark, free of ice. Tilled fields and manmade marks are represented with stamped geometric patterns set in a corner or along an edge. "I'm alluding to rational quality with those geometric marks," Murrow said. Tiny geometric solids in porcelain stand for farm-buildings. The moon is sometimes present as an unglazed wedge in a corner. Fall season, symbolized by pressed-in rust-colored leaves, is for Murrow a "time of fermentation when things are mutating into silence." A similar palette unites all the tiles, but shades and overlapping patterns vary. Different strengths of red, from deep rust to light blushes, diversely combine with creamy white snow, blue-grey patches of clouds and bluish-black accents. Snow may figure as a thick layer or as snowdrifts blown by storm winds. In #2 the white glaze evokes the shape of a bird in flight, like a great white shadow swooping across the landscape. Textures range from smooth to dramatic crack patterns due to natural shrinkage in the glaze coat when thickly applied. Indeed, most of the surface effects result from Murrow's manipulation of the dominant glaze, Shino, which is responsible for both whites and reds. In 1969, Murrow saw a 400-year-old Shino tea-bowl "with a curdly white glaze suffused with orangy passages," which led to years of research and experimentation with Shino that included his designing special kilns. Murrow discovered he could get "a range of effects, from curdly white with fire-color blushes to blood-red all over, just by treating the cooling cycle as an equally important and active part of the firing." He uses oxygen reduction during firing to pull the rust-colored iron from the clay into the colorless glaze. During cooling, the iron on the glaze surface reoxidizes and turns red. Application of the glaze also matters. The thicker the layer, the whiter the color; a thinner layer is redder. Yet no matter how vivid the red, it is never thicker than 20 microns over the white glaze. This is an exhibition not to miss.
EBC's
Cinderella
Toni Pimble's staging of Cinderella, like no other ballet in her repertory, reveals her English roots as well as her acute musicality as a choreographer. The Eugene Ballet presents Cinderella at 8 pm Saturday, Feb. 28 and 2:30 pm Sunday, Feb. 29 at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts, with Jennifer Martin in the title role on Saturday night and Brett Mills on Sunday. In an interview early this month, we asked Pimble some questions about English ballet style, Sergei Prokofiev's beautiful score and the demands of the ballerina role: EW: Do you think there is an English style of ballet as basically invented by Ashton, just as American style is said to have been invented by Balanchine? Pimble: There is most definitely an English style created by Dame Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet.[It] has restraint and finesse, but at the same time Britain's unparalleled background in theater strongly influenced the early years of British ballet as did pantomime. This combination of sometimes military precision balanced with the whimsy inherent in British character has created such masterpieces as Ashton's La Fille Mal Gardee. It has also at times created lackluster performances when the preciseness of the technique outweighs the joy of dance. EW: What is it about Prokofiev's score that grabs you as a choreographer?
Pimble: Cinderella is a fairy tale that can take place any time, any place, which makes Prokofiev's score, which creates that time and place, work for me. He clearly understood the opportunity for comedy and pathos and combines them beautifully. In the fairy scene in Act I he created a perfect opportunity to show his talent [for] instrumentation that creates a feeling for the four seasons, making the variations choreographically challenging. Prokofiev clearly defines theme music for the main characters, Cinderella, the sisters and the Prince, which aids the story. But through all of the antics of the sisters, the overall impression is that [he] cared very much about Cinderella, whom he conceived of as "not only a fairy-tale character but also as a real person, feeling, experiencing and moving among us." EW: Have you edited the score? Pimble: I have edited some of the ballroom [music], the final pas de deux from Act III, using the apotheosis instead, which is light and airy, continuing that fairytale feeling and the romance of the story. I have also eliminated the long scenes of Prince Charming searching for Cinderella in foreign countries, since after all, we all know that eventually he ends up at her doorstep, so it seemed to me, sooner rather than later would be best. EW: Jennifer Martin is dancing Cinderella for the first time. She has been gorgeous as Aurora, Odette/Odile, Sugarplum and Kitri in Don Quixote. This role has different requirements. What do you feel they are and what do you think she brings to it that others might not? Pimble: Jennifer never ceases to surprise me with her dynamic range. The role of Cinderella requires a softness and vulnerability that are the challenge for Jenny. The three solos that Cinderella dances in the kitchen scenes are very intimate. She must show the audience that she survives her drab existence by using her imagination to escape her unhappy life. At this point the ballerina must reach across the footlights and pull in the audience so that they care about the character. What delights me when working with two casts is the difference in interpretations of the same role. I always try to allow the dancers the freedom to come at the role from something personal within them. If they are artists — as Brett and Jenny surely are — they always rise to the occasion. Martin will be partnered by Huk-KuKwon and Mills by Hyoung II Joung's Prince Charming. Sets are by Skip Hubbard and Ann Woodruff Murray and costumes by Lynn Bowers, Amy Panganiban and Lito-Jon Demetita, with Cinderella's spectacular coach by Jerry Williams.
Garden
of Veggie Delights Slowly, slowly, some really great Chinese restaurants are revealing themselves to me here in Eugene: I've found the perfect potstickers at Twin Dragons on River Road, a fine lunch buffet at Golden China Buffet on Franklin. And now there is Lotus Garden, located downtown. The restaurant is modest in size and easy to miss if you aren't looking for it — just the way all great secret spots are. The dining space consists of both tables and booths, and the restaurant is decorated with Chinese artwork, paintings of goddesses, and even an altar with fresh fruit offerings. All the vegetarians out there will be raising the roof to hear that Lotus Garden serves vegetarian fare only. Appetizers include Golden Delights (fried veggie "shrimp," $7.95) and my favorite for dish names, Longevity Buns (buns filled with red beans, $3.95). Lotus Garden also offers a broad selection of soups, including Seaweed Tofu ($5.50), Spinach Tofu ($5.50) and Sizzling Rice ($7.50). I have stuck mainly to entrées, the lunch specials in particular. For those carnivores who lament that veggie fare is never interesting, or that there isn't much to choose from, note: Lotus Garden offers almost 40 different entrées, all vegetarian. On my first visit I order Curry Tofu (fried tofu, broccoli, green peppers, water chestnuts, mushrooms and carrots, $5.95 lunch price). The sauce is fantastic, classic curry flavor and almost a glossy consistency, though I would have liked it a little spicier. The tofu and mushrooms mesh nicely with the crispness of the water chestnuts and other veggies. A generous portion of the curry comes with a choice of steamed or fried rice. The lunch special comes with hot tea, which actually goes surprisingly well with the curry. My most recent visit, I had the Lotus Delight (battered and deep-fried Hunan veggie "beef," with carrots and broccoli in a sweet spicy sauce, served with choice of steamed or fried rice, $5.95 lunch price). I now say, forget beef broccoli, forget Kung Pao chicken (former favorites of mine) — my new favorite is the Lotus Delight. The "beef" medallions — a veggie, protein substitute — are deep-fried to a great toasty flavor, served with crisp veggies, all covered in the sweet spicy sauce that is something like hoisin in flavor. Lunching with friends, I refrained from too many facial expressions and abstract sounds of utter contentment. Try this dish — you will love it. And you may see me there, making my way through the other 38 selections… 810 Charnelton St. 344-1928. 10 am to 2:30 pm & 4:30 pm to 8:30 pm, M, W, Th, F. Noon to 8:30 pm S. $-$$. |
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