The stories of Guatemala, the Mayan culture and various immigrants come to life in artist Marina Hajek’s Retrospective Sample exhibit through sculptures of all different sizes and materials. Each piece tells a different story from a different perspective, but the collective exhibit comes together to form Hajek’s life experiences as an immigrant from Guatemala. She grew up during their civil war, came to the U.S. to pursue a college education and learned the cultures and histories of different civilizations from her grandfather, an archeologist. The exhibit will be on view at the Erb Memorial Student Union in the Adell McMillian Gallery until Nov. 6.
“It’s always cool to see a retrospective because you get to see kind of how someone’s work has evolved over time,” said Lily James, social media coordinator of the UO Visual Arts Committee. “She has such a vast breadth of work, like there’s cast bronze and there’s clay and these paper sculptures.”
The pieces on display include bronze, clay and a form of paper sculpture created through paper pulp that Hajek creates herself using recycled material.
Taking up one side of the exhibit is Hajek’s “Let’s Hear Their Voices” sequence, which highlights the stories and faces of real immigrants. Along one wall, the five pieces hung up in a line show large portrait molds of different faces, some old, some young and a married couple paired side by side. The sculpture is made from paper pulp and displays a detailed face rising up out of a flat surface. Written across the face is a letter written by the depicted subject detailing their experiences as an immigrant. The pieces almost look like a written letter come to life on the page. She asked the participants to write letters to the American people explaining their reason for leaving their home country to come to the U.S. and what they want people to know about them.
“I just think that we need to give a chance for the American population to hear the other side of the story and also the chance for the immigrants to be able to have their voices heard,” Hajek said. “I want the American people also to connect with them because we need these connections.”
Another sculpture in the exhibit is a bronze bust of a human body displaying only its mouth, neck and torso. The mouth of the sculpture is wide open, as if it is letting out an ear-piercing scream, which is meant to symbolize a person fighting for justice and human rights. Hajek compares it to the university students in Guatemala who were killed and tortured during the Civil War for speaking out for justice.
“What’s really important is I think students really respond positively and strongly to a story told through art,” said Suzanne Hanlon, advisor of the UO Visual Arts Committee. “This one seemed to clearly meet that and meet the purpose, action and results of the team, which is that art is for everyone and that it can be a lot of different things.”
At the far end of the exhibit wall is a bronze sculpture that culminates all of Hajek’s experiences. Titled “Sacrificial Altar,” the piece depicts an armored face with bullets rising up from its head that are holding up an ancient sacrificial altar. The face belongs to a Guatemalan Civil War soldier with his eyes missing, meant to represent the human sacrifice that he has been put through as he is forced to kill his own people. Hajek compares this to the real human sacrifices the Mayan people performed. The ancient sacrificial altar is modeled after a real animal sacrificial altar used by the Mayans that Hajek’s grandfather, an archeologist, found in one of his excavations.
The exhibit is on display in the Adell McMillian Gallery in the EMU until Nov. 6. A UO ID is required to gain access to the EMU, but the UO Visual Arts team uploaded an artist talk that displays the exhibit and Hajek’s information about the pieces on their Facebook and Instagram with closed captions.
