Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / Sept. 30, 2004, edition 1 / Page 2
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Page 2 The Blue Banner Features Art exhibit pays homage to Carolina women artists by Maribeth Kiser Staff Reporter The “Carolina Women Artists” exhibit, currently at the Asheville Art Museum, displays colorful landscapes and portraits of an over looked group of artists. “I think it is good that they are trying to bring out artists that might have been overlooked, like local women artists from this pe riod, where mostly men artists were famous,” said Kevin Schaefer, museum employee. The exhibit features the works of 30 Southern women over a span of a 100 years, from 1850 to 1950, who overcame tremendous odds during a time of political and eco nomic change in the South. Oil, pastel and watercolor me diums depict familiar southern landscapes from the coast to the mountains, capturing the natural beauty over 100 years ago. An oil painting of Charlestons Folly Beach with clean blues and greens reminds people the natural beauty before the rise of air pollu tion and high-rise condominiums. Another landscape of a farm that depicts the serene solitude of the country with rolling hills leading to a small house with horses graz ing in the pasture. “I really liked the rural depic tions,” said Julia Robinson, junior psychology major. “They give you a good idea of the rural South back in the day, especially the Carolina’s. I thought they were very historically sig nificant of what they por tray.” Many portraits dis played at this exhibit captures the femininity of the time and the graveness during a challenging pe riod; no smiling. All of these paintings focus on the naturalness of this era and em- PHOTO COURTESY ASHEVILLE ART MUSEUM Sarah Blakeslee (1912-), Windsor, North Carolina. Untitled, 1955, oil on canvas, 21.5 x 29.5,” collection of William W. Dodge, III. brace femininity through elegant flower paintings and self portraits. Along with the brilliantly painted landscapes and precisely defined portraits, a history of the challenges women faced in the South remains the theme through out this exhibit. The only downfall to the exhibit is the lack of diversity. The oil and pastel paintings of landscapes and portraits doesn’t leave room for individuality or expression, compared to more abstract paintings typically on display in museums. “They’re all one kind; pretty much all oil paintings, but that’s what people had to work with, they didn’t have these fancy schools,” said Robinson. “The im portant thing is that they attempted to do it. It was a step for women.” Keep in mind, women did not attain the right to vote until the 1920s. Most of the Southeast was marginalized post Civil War, pos ing challenges for many Southern ers. “There was very little sup- would go to Northern schools to study and create their artistic mas terpieces, some even traveled to Eu rope, in order to be accepted. The women educated in the South either studied at Converse College in port for artists in the South,” said Frank Thomson, mu seum curator. “You need places to show your work, places to study, and people to buy art. “They give you a good idea of the rural South back in the day, especially the Carolina’s. I thought they were very histori cally significant of what they portray^’” Julia Robinson junior psychology major Spartanburg or College in Colum bia, but there were many re strictions to their pro gram, ac cording to Thomson. “In the Museums were not very big until the 1950s.” Women wanting to rebel against the traditional role of housewife late 19th century there were very few places where women could study art. Most schools wouldn’t accept women,” said Thomson. “The Pennsylvania Academy of Fines Arts and later the Art Student’s League in New York City, which was run by the students, were much more supportive of women artists as a place to study and get a start.” Most of the women featured in the exhibit did not marry or keep house, while some managed to bal ance both a family and a career. These women were seen as be ing rebellious and often clashed with the traditional views of their families. For example, Blondelle Octavia Malone, featured in the exhibit, went to New York to study art and her family sent a chaperone with her. “Women could do things, but people thought they were strange,” said Thomson. “People would haul you off or lock you in the back room.” Another artist featured in the exhibit, Elizabeth Augusta Chant, came from England and then went to Minnesota where her family had her committed. Once she got out she went to Wilmington and never returned to Minnesota, all because she rebelled against the social standards of women, according to Thomson. “I think the paintings are so important because these women didn’t have any training and weren’t encouraged to have careers and do things outside the home,” said Robinson. Many of the women’s successful careers included exhibiting their works, teaching art and giving back to their community. Some of them even lived off of commissions from their work, while others suffered. “All of these people were serious about their artwork,” said Thomson. “They helped find the museums in Asheville, Wilmington and Spartanburg.” ‘Control Room’ shows flipside to war in Iraq by Apryl Blakeney Staff Reporter Ever since Donald Rumsfeld described the Arab satellite television network Al- Jazeera as the “mouthpiece of Osama bin Laden,” many Americans are left confused about the networks’ agenda. Documentar- ian Jehane Noujaim takes viewers behind the scenes of the Arabic-language network in the film “Control Room,” now playing at the Fine Arts Theater. Egyptian-born and Harvard-educated Noujaim recorded military activity in Iraq from the walls of Central Command (CentCom), a makeshift media village in Qatar, 700 miles from Baghdad. The media center houses reporters from across the globe including CNN, Fox News, NBC, BBC and Al-Jazeera. In the film, through the ears of Al-Jazeera, we hear Bush’s threat of invasion, and through Arabic eyes we see civilian blood shed, the tumbling of Hussein’s statue and the anarchy of a nation left without rule. With Qatari money in hand, former employees of the BBC launched Al-Jazeera in 1996, making it the first independent news channel in the Middle East. Though disliked by many Arabic governments and even banned in Saudi Arabia, it remains the most popular Arabic news channel, reach ing over 40 million viewers. “All the Middle Eastern countries are re ally dictatorships,” said Loubna Dardna, Moroccan native. “There is no democracy of expression or of speech, therefore, there is no democracy of the media. But there is still that need to understand the issues of the Arabic and Islamic people so Al-Jazeera came along, and they recognize the concept of media in the Arabic world. Now people are listening to other Arab people who talk with their language and address their issues. They deal deeply with our problems and not from western eyes with western democracy, because that is useless to us.” The film opens to the voice of Samir Khader, the cynically-engaging, chain-smok ing Senior Producer of Al-Jazeera. He boldly states, “You can not wage a war without pro paganda.” Though it remains a shockingly honest ascertain, moviegoers will most likely re member him for confessing “between us, if I were offered a job at Fox News, I would take it to exchange the Arab nightmare for the American dream.” This is the man Rumsfeld claims is a liar, tarnishing and twisting the American image. “Fox is propaganda, though I am sure they say that about Al-Jazeera too, but there is just no truth in the way that they demonize Arabs and demonize Islam,” said Dardna. The patient and empathetic CentCom Press Officer suggests a different outlook when comparing American media to Eastern media, an analysis that takes place in various forms throughout the film. It benefits Al-Jazeera to play to Arab na tionalism because that is their audience, just like Fox plays to American patriotism for the exact same reason,” said Lieutenant Josh Rushing in the film. However, the documentary seems to con tain an underlying tone that sadly sug- PHOTO COURTESY OF MAGNOLIA PICTURES Lt. Josh Rushing, U.S. Military press officer in “Control Room,” a Magnolia Pictures release, (c) Magnolia Pictures. hie ideas. That is like Al-Jazeera talking about how Nebraska should be invaded because ‘really Nebraska isn’t doing very well’ and we should re-liberate them and offer only news about Nebraska 24/7. But unlike Fox, gests that being an Arabic nationalist or American patriot means railing against the opposing nation. The film implies that Fox reiterates misconception marketing patriotic sentiment, but sell ing anti-Arabic men tality. this by “Fox is propaganda, though I am sure they say that about Al-Jazeera too, but there is just no truth in the way that they demonize Arabs and demonize Islam.” Loubna Dardna Moroccan native “It would be ridiculous to think that Al- Jazeera would take issues of Texas or Ne braska, but that is how I see Fox,” said Dardna. “They think they are an expert on Middle Eastern issues and Islamic and Ara- AI-J azeera doesn’t do that. They deal with the problems and is sues of their own country.” At the heart of the film is the ethical question of media accuracy, honesty and objectivity in re porting. It sheds light upon news manipu lation at the lens of American journalists at tempting to sway our political ideals related to the War in Iraq but it also exposes unfair ness within Al-Jazeera. When an American repnjrter questioned an Al-Jazeera spokeswoman about the biases in Arabic news, the spokeswoman calmly an swered with a rhetorical question “And what about the biases in American media?” The spokeswoman continued to say “ob jectivity is a mirage, when dealing with something as passionate as war. Noujaim admits growing up with con tradictory news sources inspired her to ex amine Al-Jazeera. As an example of these concerns, Noujaim explored Al-Jazeera’s coverage during the fall of Hussein’s statue and analyzed the liber ated Iraqi people who came out to celebrate. Only to find that, in contrast to Ameri can news, the square was not full with grate ful Iraqi s ready to embrace there new found freedom. Instead, only 15 boys circled around the fallen Hussein. With this film, its the realization of un known realities, misguided truth and feel ings of puppetry that cause viewers to leave feeling a litde betrayed, a litde appalled and a lot inspired. September 50,2004 ‘Sky Captain’ ^ flies with first class eye candy by Chris Beck Staff Reporter “Sky Captain and the World Tomorrow,” reminiscent of tie “Casablanca” and “Lost in Space' days, brings modern electronics a® digital effects together with a nor talgic 1940s look. “Science-fiction relies heavilyi special effects and when that ha pens, sometimes the story suffen said Jason Tobin of Asheville. The movie offers a pastiche ideas from 1930s and 1940s cotnit books, radio serials and big-screei romantic comedies. Set in an ani mated New York City, movie the ater marquees advertise “Wuthetii:| Heights” and “The Wizard of Of placing the year at 1939 and fore casting a bizarre development ii which director Kerry Conran wi resuscitate a long-dead petsoi through computer-generatei magic. Reporter Polly Perkin! (Gwyneth Paltrow) takes us on journey through an obviously pre dictable story dealing with disap pearing scientists in the New Yoi area. The plot seems cribbed ffomtht old adventure serials, only deco rated for a demandingly modem audience. Inl939 New York, tht city gets attacked by a monolithic swarm of mega-robots. wan n Nev coir oust beet 'ing quc! allo' oftl Ctjli ercr sajd mu I Wi bad iah here thin cust etap As an ace reporter, Perkins takes the case and prompdy enlists theaid of her strong-jawed former love Sky Captain Joe Sullivan (Judt Law). Once the hero saves the day, he flies off to base where we meei the brains behind the equipment Dex Dearborn (Giovanni Ribisi), After chancing upon a fe« choice clues, Joe and Polly eventu ally head off to a wild array of a otic locales, stopping along the way to rescue various sidekicks and battle an ever-eclectic collection supremely cool looking robots. Up to this point the audience hai seen a multitude of digital effect! like fades, cross dissolves, overlap ping and 3D modeled backdrops- It would appear that the post-pro duction team took a beating on thii one considering the whole film wa! shot against a blue screen with ev erything computer generated except for the actors. Conran shot each extra and ac tor individually so they could bt manipulated easily without having to shoot the scenes again. Althougb effective at bringing this to life, tbf characters appeared washed out and static, compared to their back ground. “It’s not a seamless integration oi animation and film,” said Bryan Taubert of Asheville. Conran tries to cover seams be tween humans and animation witb a forgiving gray-brown palette and haloed lighting. This approact works sometimes, but at others the actors seem too defined in the fote ground and call attention to the picture’s competing elements. In > few scenes, Paltrow and Law occupy the same frame but do not appen* to play off each other. “It just looks cheesy,” Taubert. “It doesn’t look as smooth as I’ve seen animation before. Iks Ash Although the integration ntaj not have succeeded in raising th* bar for quality, it did leave a go0“ impression for Tobin. ,. ‘I liked the visual concept, sai Tobin. “It’s like ‘Star Wars’ meets ‘Indiana Jones. It’s a nice movie to see just for fun, and I would go ^ it again.” ■ The plot line is simple: to n't will cou driv / erec thei ( No bo poi lUK pet Fu! reo tur any the ser lin Cc tal op an m th, thi tht We ale SCI ev hi hr pi er See sky on page 3
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