Page 12
Daily Nebraskan
Thursday, October 14, 1982
Aits & Emteiiammeet
Photographer Yates shoots for tactile sensation
By Lori Sullivan
If you look at photographic artist Steve Yates' work,
you are expected to add something to it. And, if you are
expecting to see an ordinary photograph, you won't find
one.
Yates' work is based on his belief that photography
is an ongoing process. It begins with a camera image,
embellished with hand drawing and painting by the artist,
and completed by the perceptions of the viewer.
Yates' "Painted Church" is part of the Ranchos De
Taos exhibit at Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery. "Painted
Church" is a color photograph incorporating a camera
image with hand painting and drawing. The layers of
drawing, paint and emulsion add the tactile quality which
Yates says is important to the piece.
The subject of Yates' work is the Ranchos De Tao;
church in Taos, N.M. The church was made famous by the
early photographs of Ansel Adams, and Paul Strand and
many others.
"Now people know what the church looks like - I
took advantage of that to carry the process on from
there," Yates said.
In "Painted Church," the hand painting and drawing
work with the photographic image to leave the percep
tion of the total image up to the viewer, Yates said.
"The role of the viewer is changing in photographic
art," he said.
His work is more a perceptual experience than a visual
one, he said. He does not work with the camera as an
extension of the eye; rather, he said, the camera is an
extension of the perception of an image.
Yates, 33, graduated from UNL in 1972 with a
bachelor's degree in fine arts. He completed both his
master's and doctorate work at the University of New
Mexico. Yates has taught at the University of New
Mexico, the University of California in Los Angeles and
Pomona College in California. Since 1979, he has been
curator of photography, prints and drawings at the
Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, N. M.
Norman Geske, director of Sheldon Art Gallery, and
Jim Alinder, a former UNL art professor, were both very
important to the directon his work has taken, Yates said.
Alinder encouraged him to continue his artistic work,
and graduate work with Geske at Sheldon sparked his
interest in museum administration. Currently, Yates is
experimenting with a deep freezing process to preserve
color photography from its rapid deterioration.
In 1978, Sheldon Art Gallery featured Yates in a one
man show. His work has also been in numerous group
exhibits, including showings at the San Francisco Museum
of Modern Art in 1980, at the Olympic Winter Games
and at California State University, Los Angeles.
New Mexico and the Southwest has long been a mecca
for photographers. Yates said he thinks New Mexico con
tains a total cross section of all types of photographers.
There is not a unified style, so artists are not bound by
artistic strategy and are able to use more open-ended
ideas, he said. Photography is much more than just a
document. Artists are moving beyond that idea, and
many new concepts are being formed now, he said.
"I'm not only an artist," Yates said. "I'm an observer
of photography. The people who are really making a
mark are changing the idea of what a photograph is."
m f - p
it " V
Photo by Lori Sullivan
Romeo Void: Breathless,
romantic, sexual funk
r
Benefactor
Romeo Void
415Columbia
If Lois Lane were a rocker, she'd
write lyrics like Romeo Void. A matter-of-fact
approach to sex and romance
is Romeo Void's underlying theme.
Lead singer Debora lyall writes about
personal experiences much like a
reporter does ("just the facts, ma'am")
with a total lack of phoniness and gloss.
The bounce is bigVie bouncer is
bigger The drinks aren 't stiff 1 know
what is - from the song "Under
cover Kept"
The sexual politics approach of
Romeo Void bring to mind Chrissie
llynde of the Pretenders, although
lyall is less deliberately tawdry. She's
just practical.
On the occasions that lyall does
take a less personal, more oblique
tack, the lyrics are transformed into
prose poetry similar to Patti Smith's
when she started out. lyall sings like
a Patti Smith with vocal lessons. Her
range: from breathless to screaming.
The rest of Romeo Void comple
ment lyall's honesty-is-the-best-policy
attitude. In contrast to her bluntness,
the band- is subtle. Romeo Void has
come up with, a distinctive new sound
that melds desperate elements into a
cohesive whole. Sax player Ben Rossi
bleats a haunting sax that is jazz all
the way.
Bass player Frank Zincavage is the
real lead player as his melodic lines
propel the funkdance beat. The San
Francisco band's first album, "It's
a Condition," was a big hit in dance
clubs, and it's easy to understand
why. They're almost as funky as Talking
Heads.
Actually, Romeo Void is the mirror
image of Roxy Music, a group that
made some of the best music of the
mid-'70s. Both bands have a similar
ensemble style that also spotlighted
the dramatic sax. Lead singer Bryan
Ferry was obsessed with romance, too,
except he fancied himself as a torch
singer in a Dirk Bogarde movie. Roxy's
only radio hit was "Love is the Drug,"
sentiments that lyall would buy. Romeo
Void may have a hit of their own,
though, with "Never Say Never."
Opening with a jangling guitar riff,
lyall starts singing as if through a long
distance megaphone. As always, that
hypnotic sax chimes in.
might like you better
If we slept together
It could be the catch phrase of the
year, although Phyllis Schafly would
not approve.
Ric Ocasek of the Cars produced
"Benefactor" at his studio in Boston.
The hand-tooled precision sound that
Ocasek specializes in works well with
Romeo Void. The drum sound really
kicks out of your speakers.
Ocasek is slick, but not too slick.
Another notable involved with Romeo
Void is manager Sandy Perclman,
former producer of Blue Oyster Cult
and the Clash's "Give 'Em Enough
Rope." The mastermind of the record
company 415 is Howie Klein, who
used to be a rock writer for skin maga
zines. 415 is going for the big-time
here, as they have made a deal with
Columbia Records.
415 is California police jargon for
disturbing the peace. Romeo Void
isn't the kind of group that distrubs the
peace. They do make you think though.
They'll be playing at the Nebraska
Union Centennial Room Sunday night
in a concert no excitable dancer should
miss. Their quirky approach to music
makes for a fine album and should
make for an excellent evening live.
By Pat Higgins
Forget this elephant, soldier
By Jeff Goodwin
Back in the mid 1970s when Frank
Church was the head of the Senate com
mittee investigating the abuses of the
CIA, he called the CIA a "rogue elephant."
"The Soldier" is the ultimate rogue
elephant movie. The Soldier is the code
name for the head of a special CIA unit
that goes around taking care of problems
? Movie
yes,x Review
that can't be handled through normal
intelligence channels.
Ken Wahl, who you may remember as
Paul Newman's sidekick in "Fort Apache,
the Bronx," plays the Soldier. (He doesn't
have a name. He is simply "the Soldier.")
The basic plot of this movie, other
than setting up as many situations as
possible where people can get killed, is
as follows:
A bunch of renegade KGB men hijack
a shipment of plutonium and concoct
an atomic bomb, which they put smack
dab in the middle of a Saudi Arabian oil
field.
Then they demand that Israel remove all
of their settlements from the West Bank
within 96 hours or else. Naturally, the
Israelis, being stubborn, refuse.
So the United States is faced with the
problem of losing 50 percent of the world's
oil supply for the next 300 years (not a
pleasant prospect).
The only solution the president can
come up with is to invade Israel and toss
them off the West Bank. He's kind of a
namby-pamby guy anyway.
But the Soldier has another idea. He
sends his boys into a missile base in Kan
sas, and they take over a silo. Then the
Soldier tells his Soviet counterpart to
knock it off. Naturally, he does.
The thing about this movie is that it's
almost believable. Ten years ago, a movie
like this would have been laughed off as
science fiction. But in post-Watergate
America, this isn't so far-fetched.
Of course, there's a lot of room for
improvement in this film. For one thing,
there's the violence. It's overdone and
approaches - no exceeds - the limits
of good taste.
Too many movies these days just throw
in random violence to attract customers,
and this film reaches a new low in that
regard. Slow motion shots of guys getting
a shotgun blast in the stomach just don't
make it.
Besides the violence, there are obvious
inconsistencies in the plot.
At one point, the Soldier flies to Austria
to meet a KGB man who might have infor
mation as to the identity of the KGB
terrorists who have planted the bomb.
For reasons that are never explained, the
Russian tries to kill him. As if that weren't
confusing enough, the Soldier then breaks
into the U.S. Embassy in West Berlin to
secure a phone line to the CIA head
quarters. Now it seems to me, an admitted
novice in the spy game, that he could get
in touch with his office without having
to break into the U.S. Embassy. But,
as I say, I'm just a novice.
Another hokey thing about this film
is the love interest. The Soldier goes to
bed with an Israeli agent, but it seems
almost an afterthought on the part of
the screenwriter.
It's even her idea. "Don't you know
we're on the eve of destruction?" she
asks the Soldier. (At this point 1 expected
Barry McGulre to burst into song. It
would have added to the movie.) Then
he gets the idea. The Soldier might be a
great agent, but he's not very smart.
And you're not very smart either if
you go to see this movie. But if you
want to anyway, you'd better hurry.
It ends, mercifully, tonight.
1 1 - - 11 " , 111 ' r - "" I , " - . ' '
Correction
In the announcement In
the Wednesday issue head
lined "Commander Cody
boogie-woogies tonight,
the date of the concert was
wrong. Cody performs at
Little Bo's Thursday - that
is. Commander Cody
boogie-woogies tonight.
Photo courtwy of Variety Arum