A review of three shows in REFLEX September 1995 by Lois Allan

"FORESTS"
Julia Stoll at Blackfish

"THE SHROUD OF CELILO"
Works by Brad Yazzolino
Littman Gallery, Portland State University, July

"WILD OREGONIANS", ORLO

"... Brad Yazzolino, having already probed the history, geography, and politics of the Bull Run watershed (the main source of Portland's water supply), now has turned his attention to a water resource of even greater magnitude – the Columbia River. Specifically, he was concerned with the section of the river between Hanford and Portland where construction of the nuclear plant and the submerging of Celilo Falls by The Dalles Dam (in 1956) wrought havoc. Under the title "The Shroud of Celilo," Yazzolino created his own flood of pictorial, textual, and video reflections on the "before and after" of the river. No surprise here: before, it was an Eden, an infinite supply of nourishment for fish and humans alike. After, it's a mess, the victim of bad government policies, development, and pleasure-seeking vacationers, sportsmen, and consumers. To convey all this he produced photographs, paintings, and computer generated juxtapositions of photographs and printed material such as postcards and pages from historical records, often combined with paintings. Although both imagery and many titles (The Columbia Dams Are Obsolete and There Are Two Sides to Every River, the Short Sighted and the Long Sighted, for examples) are doctrinaire, the plethora of pictures, if followed sequentially, provided a valuable education in the river's life, post and present.

Prodigious as the compilation and transformation of material were, there's more to come. Two projects, the most impressive of all, were shown in their as yet incomplete state. One was a twenty-five foot long map on a roll of Rives paper showing natural and man-made landmarks, including such wonders as the Outlet Mail in Troutdale, along the river's course. The other, an interactive CD-ROM about the Columbia Gorge, includes both imagery and stories that Yazzolino has adopted from historical records. It promises to be equally fervid but with the addition of spoken text, entertaining as well as educational.

Both Yazzolino's and Julia Stoll's exhibitions closed at the end of July just as Orlo's was hitting the streets - along with the billboards, store windows, T-shirts, and cars around the state...."