With their pulsating high-gloss finish, suggestive of the hyper-reality of HDTV, there is an overall sense of the ineffable, just-out-of-reach reality of our time. Bernard has given up much in his work. He gave up the fourth dimension of motion pictures, the psychic and physical experience of the passage of time, and instead has composed highly charged objects that read simultaneously as cryptic or ancient signs, and as emblems of consciousness. He has always been a bardic presence in our community but with this latest work Bernard has created inscrutable, timeless masterpieces awaiting engagement.

In a sense, Joseph Bernard is still making moving pictures.

Based on a True Story! (Pt. 2) is at the Center Galleries of the College for Creative Studies (of which Joe Bernard is a retired faculty member) through Dec. 18; gallery open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, at 301 Frederick Douglass, Detroit; 313-664-7806.

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