Photographic Testament to Oil Spill Tragedy

Burbank resident John Newman, one of the few photographers to gain access to the areas of Alaska most affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill, is having an exhibition of his photographs at the Santa Monica College Photo Gallery through June 23.

Newman’s photographs, some of which were reprinted in the Village Voice’s article on the disaster, are stark testimony to the damage at Prince William Sound. They focus on the town of Cordova, 50 miles southeast of the port of Valdez, an area particularly hard hit by the spill. Cordova’s 500-boat fishing fleet is docked for an indefinite time.

“As I arrived in Alaska,” said Newman, “I realized that the spill was a tragedy of a greater scale than I had imagined. The beaches are ruined for 800 miles . . . the smell is everywhere. The human side hurt me more. I saw wonderful, free, caring people whose lives were stripped from them like the sudden severing of a limb.

“The nightmare that wakes me at night is that those faces will become the faces of the people of San Francisco Bay, Santa Monica Bay, Monterey Bay or Puget Sound.”

Two of Newman’s photographs were presented to Vice President Dan Quayle when he visited Cordova. Newman’s work was also featured in Seattle to commemorate Alaska National Wildlife Memorial Day on May 7.

Santa Monica College Photo Gallery at the SMC Library, 1900 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica. (213) 452-9209. Open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays.

TEN YEARS OF BLINKY: The work of Southern California artist and prankster Jeffrey Vallance is the subject of “Blinky the Friendly Hen: 10-Year Anniversary Exhibition,” running at the Rosamund Felsen Gallery in Los Angeles.

“Blinky,” a Foster Farms fryer purchased at a supermarket in Canoga Park, was laid to rest by Vallance in 1978 at the Los Angeles Pet Cemetery in a powder-blue coffin with a pink satin lining. The process, from purchase to burial, was captured on film and recorded in a booklet titled “Blinky.”

Last year, Vallance exhumed the body in an elaborate ceremony, which was capped by an autopsy performed by the head of pathology at UCLA. Legal documents and a videotape from the exhumation will also be on display at the show. Vallance has also re-created the viewing room from the pet cemetery, and a rubber replica of the Friendly Hen will be lying in state.

“Objets de Blinky” will be on sale as well. One piece of paper on which the hen rested, marked with chicken blood and juices, was sold several years ago for $1,000.

Also on display will be recent works by Vallance, including modified found objects that he describes as “the kind of fake folk art that is mass-produced in Taiwan and sold in shopping malls.” The exhibit, which opened earlier this month, continues through July 8.

Rosamund Felsen Gallery, 669 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles. (213) 652-9172. Open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

LIGHT YEARS: Jan Sanchez’s installation “Light Years,” an environment of adobe, neon, steel, earth and glass, continues at the Museum of Neon Art through Sept. 2.

Sanchez’s work, which re-creates a science-fiction environment, is the culmination of her work with adobe and neon, her primary sculptural media.

Sanchez, a native of Iowa who divides her time between New Mexico and California, exhibited her first small environmental sculptures in a group show at the museum in 1986. Since then she has created site-specific neon and adobe environments as well as sculptures in museums and galleries throughout the Southwest.

Museum of Neon Art, 704 Traction Ave., Los Angeles. (213) 617-1580. Open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.