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CLEAR Temp: 48 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Tuesday, September 30, 2003 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine Joy Magazine Tempo A & E RogueValleyAutoFinder RogueValleyHomeFinder Real Estate Showcase Wellness Connection Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Employment Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend September 7, 2003 C. Surreal Zinn�s new art exhibit, �Breast Wishes: Uncovering an American Obsession,� includes words written in indelible markers on polystyrene plates, above, that become �breastplates� on the walls at JEGA Gallery in Ashland. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Art show focuses on obsession with breasts By BILL VARBLE Mail Tribune What do the following artworks have in common? "The Ashcroft Curtain," mixed media by J. Ellen Austin, an old woodstove door through the opening of which can be seen a photo of a woman’s chest. Ashland artist Bruce Duykers’ large acrylic of a bikini-bottom-clad model strategically holding a pair of ripe melons. Advertisement Talent artist Daniel Pinkham’s assemblage "Totally Tubular," a female figure with a wire halo, an off/on umbilical switch and vacuum tube breasts. Answer: All are part of "Breast Wishes: Uncovering an American Obsession," (exhibit tag line: "A titillating experience by Zinn"), an art exhibit put together by C. Surreal Zinn. Zinn says the kernel for the show’s inception came several years ago when a ninth-grade girl in one of her classes told her she was going to have breast enlargement surgery. "What would lead her to this?" she asked her class of teachers in training at Southern Oregon University. The search for answers led Zinn, a compulsive quote- and picture-saver, to what became the exhibit. She has collected more than 5,000 quotes about breasts. The show opened Friday at JEGA Gallery in Ashland’s Railroad District with a new work of topless performance art. The exhibit runs through October. J. Ellen Austin of JEGA says the Ashcroft piece is an ironic salute to the attorney general of the United States, who made headlines by covering up a breast on the statue of Justice with an expensive drape. The show explores all angles of its subject. It’s even participatory. Those who stay abreast of art are invited to contribute their thoughts on the theme by writing with indelible markers on polystyrene plates which become "breastplates" and parts of the show. Now an associate professor of education at Southern Oregon University, Zinn brought the idea to Austin, a gallery owner, sculptor and teacher known for mounting innovative exhibits. She collected material for the show — which is now part of her doctoral work — for years. Artworks on display range from classic nudes to post-modernism to political statements to the simply quirky. Medford artist Jan Schmitz chipped in with "Well I Never?" an acrylic pastel nude with attitude. "There’s a lot of humor," Austin says. "People expecting it to be pornographic are going to be disappointed." Scattered here and there on posters and cards are notable utterances. Some are political, like Germain Greer’s: "A full bosom is actually a millstone around a woman’s neck." Some are famously from other media, such as Hattie McDaniels’ line to Vivien Leigh in "Gone With the Wind" ("You can’t show your bosom ’fore three o’ clock"). Some are disingenuous, like Sheila E.’s: "I’m not trying to sell sex. I just don’t like wearing a lot of clothes on stage." Some are droll, like Prince Charles’ remark when he was visiting Fiji and watching the bare-breasted dancers popular with tourists: "Well, it beats the changing of the guard, doesn’t it?" There’s a story about Gwen Stone, the well-known California artist who came up with a technique called nipple-painting in her 80s. In an artist’s statement, Zinn says many women tell her their breasts — or lack of them — were the subject of conversations with their mothers. She says that as long as breasts remain a sales tool, women will be affected by the obsession. If viewers could take one idea away from the show, Zinn says she’d like it to be that we are who we are underneath media obsessions and clich�s. "You could do the same thing with the penis," she says. JEGA is at 625 A St., Ashland. 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