ARTS
The Michigan Daily
Saturday, January 26, 1985
Page 5
Guggenheim art exhibit
. .. It's surre
By Andrew Comai
T read not with trepidation but cum
celeritate to the Museum of Art on
the corner of State and South Univer-
sity. Within that neoclassical construct
is nestled a mind expanding exhibit, en-
titled "The Influence of Surrealism on
American Art." The exhibit is com-
posed of 32 works on loan from the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum as
well as pieces from the University of
Michigan collection. The surrealist
theme should not deter you from atten-
ding, for the basic ideals of surrealist
art include four themes which seem to
enthrall most normal college students:
sex, fear of death, rejection of
authoritarian dogma, and sex.
The erotic and morbid elements of
surrealism stem from the use of
Freudian and Jungian theories on the
cause and content of dreams. The
surrealist seeks to delve into the sub-
conscious, capturing in various media
the essence of the inner mind. The in-
ner essence can be extremely shocking
in its content. The disturbing piece by
Kay Savage with its unstable architec-
tural structures dominating the
foreground and its lack of secure and
supportive background structures
looks like the worst nightmare of an
agoraphobic engineer. The dark
menace of the sky meets the horizon
and the dismal distance threatens to
swallow up the viewer. The seething
element of the human id, the fear of
death, is manifest if this picture.
The erotic aspects of the human sub-
concious are prevalent in the exhibit.
While it may be easy to exceed the
limits of good taste when examining
these works for signs of gender sym-
bolism, both phallic and vaginate, it
sure is fun. The most obvious example
is in Victor Banner's Constancy of
Sexuality. In this festive piece several
Aztec gods frolic in all their tumescent
glory. A more enigmatic piece, Hans
Arp's Fruit Pre-Adamique, has an ob-
vious sensual, touchable form yet is
only slightly anthropomorphic. Its title
would lead one to believe that this small
bronze, a veritable abstract orgy, is the
artist's conception of carnal lust before
there was flesh.
When examining the essence of the
inner mind one need not dwell entirely
on the horrifying and shocking. There
is the beautiful and the intriguing as
well. Matta's Luminous Paint, a
panorama of another world, is the at-
tempt to express not the landscape of
another place but the "inscape" of
another mind. Max Ernst in his En
Rade may have been trying to convey
al thing
nothing more than the joy, light, and
life that the human mind can experien-
ce. It surpasses what the retina can
take in and delivers the concentrated
elements of the human psyche.
If fine art to you seems rather preten-
tious and constricted by dogma spewed
forth by "art authorities," if the use of
psychological symbolism seems like
another artificial convention, then this
exhibit is still worth your while.
Spawned from the zany school of the
Dadaists, the surrealists still have a
flavor of subversive, anti-establish-
ment humor. The Dadaists were the ar-
tists most likely to write humorous
things on restroom walls. It was
Duchamp who drew a moustache on the
Mona Lisa and inscribed the saying
"she's got hot pants" beneath. Good
fun is evident in Calder's mobile as well
as several prints by Duchamp himself.
Most wonderous is the book cover by
Duchamp which seems to represent
either a large pink doorbell, or a small
version of one of his wife's two friends.
Museum hours are 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Tues - Fri and 1 - 5 Sat and Sun.
Special talks will be given on January
29 and 31 from 12:10 - 12:30. The title
of the talks is."Maholy-Nagy and Mark
Rothko: Two Approaches to
Surrealism."
Adolph Gottleib's "Beasts in the Night" is one of the many fine works now on exhibit at the University Museum of Art.
. ..... .....
Bandco
By Richard Williams
h, the mystique of Factory Records.
They have provided us with the
honest ambiguity of the Joy
Division/New Order legacy. We
always recognize the terse, simple in-
dustrial graphics on any new release
standing in the shops. So what is Fac-
tory all about? I'd rather leave that up
to you or whoever wants to write a book
about it because I prefer silent reinter-
pretation. But there's one simple thing
we should realize: Factory Records is
also the Durutti Column, A Certain
Ratio, The Wake The Names, The
Stockholm Monster, Section 25, and
others.
The latter is our subject today. Sec-
tion 25 was formed in 1979 and has
released three albums, the current
being From the Hip. They have
gone throught some personnel changes
ntinues Factory's legacy
I
but the core has remained the brothers
Larry and Vin Cassidy, on
guitar/vocals and electronics, respec-
tively.They currently enroll two female
vocalist/keyboardist and a drummer.
From the Hip is a healthy encoun-
ter in the post-synthetic course of the
inanity. The record charts a varied
course in electronic mayhem without
ever becoming derivative or playing up
to the computer age's electro-pop men-
tality. The lyrics are purposely am-
biguous, a Factory specialty. Tempos
change, directions change, melodies
change, continually creating a passive,
engaging breath of fresh pop.
Things begin slowly but beautifully
enough with "The Process" which
builds with a heavenly synth line and a
biting New Orderish guitar. Drums
begin to pound and one of the girls mut-
ters along as the whole big thing begins
to swell over our heads. The single
"Looking From a Hilltop" follows. It
features an amazingly dense slice of
synth and drums that will assuredly
pound you into the dancefloor. It rivals
New Order's "Blue Monday" and
SPK's "Metal Dance" for pure sonic
capabilites.
"Reflection" is the perfect electro-
pop tune. A joyous melody and pun-
ctuated vocal interplay help it put all
the synth trendies on a solemn wander
through the cold forest. But Side 1 ends
with "Prepare to Live," a negligible
hyper pop-dirge.
Side 2 starts with "Program for
Light", another dense slice of unpredic-
table electronic mayhem and then
unexpectedly shifts gears as it segues
into "Desert" a compelling interplay of
acoustic guitar, piano and female
vocals.
The album runs out of refreshing
ideas at the end as "Beneath the Blade"
plods through a very good but standard
post-Joy Division riff. It segues into
"Inspiration" which contains many
nice mutations of its melody but relies
on standard electro-pop riffs and
vocals.
Section 25 along with New Order and
a few others are aware of the musical
limitations of electronics and are suc-
cessful in using it to their advantage.
Section 25 has developed a set of varied
yet engaging songs that keep the faith
alive for the post-punk synthtrade.
Editor's note: Section 25 will be
appearing tonight at The Asylum in
Detroit. Tickets are $6. Call 962-
7280 for further information.
This barren landscape that effaces Section 25's new album,From the Hip,
would fit nicely in Brian Griffin's portfolio of rock and roll album covers.
l
Marlboro musicians make magnificent music
By Neil Galanter The concert opened with Mozart's the continuity of the ensemble was for the siderable amount of musical tension ensemble's chiseled clean passage dance tunes that go over well
Flute Quartet in D Major for flute, most part in excellent form. There was and excitement without any loss of the work was also most impressive. Thus, audience. There is also a p
violin, viola, and cello. The quartet is a slight problem in the beginning with necessary quiet and expressive aspects the Beethoven ended on an upbeat abundance of lyricism in the pi
hat's more enjoyable on a called a flute quartet not because it is respect to perfect ensemble playing of an adagio. rounding itself out with a good batting Licad captured all the spirit an
dreary January evening than made up of four flutes, but because it when the flute seemed a pinch too The interpretational problem came average. of the former, but passed over
with an
leasant;
ece and
d verve
a lot of
hearing five different instruments play
in ensemble? Nothing much actually,
and nothing. much more was really
needed Wednesday night in Rackham
Auditorium when five outstanding
young artists from the "Music from
Marlboro" Series performed a night's
worth of chamber music, a delightful
repetoire encompassing Mozart,
Beethoven, and Czech composer An-
tonin Dvorak.
is a piece for four instruments with the
flute playing the major role in the
piece. That is exactly what flutist
Judith Mendenhall did in this perfor-
mance. She knows the craft of playing
her pipe extraordinarily well.
Producing a mello (and never shrill)
tone quality, Mendenhall provided for
generous helpings of spontaneous, sup-
ple music making. Tempo changes
were handled with ease and grace, and
detached from the group despite the
fact that the flute is supposed to play a
solo type of role. The problem was
solved later, however,by the elegance
and precision of the middle Adagio
movement, and by the end of the Ron-
deau we had been treated to a portion of
music beautifully interwoven and inter-
twined. -
The Beethoven String Trio No.1, Op. 9 in
G Major followed the Mozart. After
such a vivaciously spirited Mozart per-
forming anything else is a tough act to
follow, but by performing music of
Beethoven, the three stringed _in-
strumentalists actually fared quite well.
The interpretation of the Adagio was
right on base, played with a con-
with the Scherzo. "Scherzo" is the
Italian word for joke, indicating a
musical character somewhat half
serious and extremely light-hearted. A
scherzo movement following an adagio
is a naturally perfect contrast and it is
quite pleasing to the listeners ears, but
the group's scherzo did not seem to
have enough jest in it. It was much
too constrained, and not enough gag or
jape was manifested. Did they take a
more laid back approach here in order
to set us up for a real "gung-ho" presto
finale? The answer is a very strong
"perhaps."
The presto finale certainly was "all
forces go!!"and plenty .of sweep and
drama was apparent throughout. The
After intermission we moved into the
Romantic era with music of Czech
composer Antonin Dvorak. Pianist
Cecile Licad joined the string players
for a performance of the Piano Quartet
in E Flat, Opus 87. The score is filled
with all of the leaping spirited Czech
the latter lyricism, as she has often
done before in past performances of
other works. She has supreme
capabilities pianistically and
technically, but is often somewhat
detached emotionally from the music,
skimming over what are often the finest
parts.
Future moguls strut stuff
By James Fazio
The best videos from the 1984
Michigan Media Student Video
Festival returned to Ann Arbor
Thursday night for a show at Per-
formance Network. The videos
shown were all produced by studen-
ts and some were award winners at
the Festival, which was held at the
Michigan Theater last April.
The opening video, entitled
"Courier Express," by R.C. Nygard
of the University of Minnesota, went
home with the $500 third prize last
year, a fact that surprised most, as
many people did not appreciate it.
The photography was jerky, the plot
weak, and the acting average. the
only two bright spots in this seven
and half minute action video were a
radar gun reading of 56 mph which
started a cop-chases-high-priced-
sports-car scene in a 55 mph zone
and the last lines of the video which
read: "All Rights Reserved - And
Then Some."
A music video entitled "Get
Tough" was also featured in the
show. Created by Shane Solow of
focused on brightly colored Indian
paintings and combined them with a
penetrating score. The special ef-
fects were simple but neatly done,
and a catharsis was actually
achieved in the short time of ten
minutes.
Live theater offers some advan-
tages over other methods of viewing,
as exemplified by the special per-
formance of the evening called "On
Line." This interesting piece moved
too slow to be a television attraction,
but as a live show it was impressive.
It presented a modern day computer
addict as he went through a series of
interludes that included a hacker, a
psychic's billboard, a girl named
Julie, and a computer fantasy game
geek.
The Media Festival is a three day
affair with the last show starting at
8p.m. tonight. This evening's
program includes the best of the San
Francisco International Video
Festival and "A Retrospective,"
videos from the '70s, that have been
made in production during the past
few years. Tonight's event will be
held at Performance Network at 408
W. Washington.
Anybody who is interested (even
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