Ahh, July in Tucson. The thunderstorms, humidity and blistering heat have driven all but the truly brave (or truly dense) indoors. Luckily, the excellent curatorial skills of Julie Sasse and the talents of many local artists have given us something intere sting to look at.

Here in our air-conditioned Student Union, the (aptly named) Union gallery hosts a show by Tempe artist Thomas Strich, featuring an oddball blend of photography and sculpture. Strich used hand-built armatures, tripods, and other strange contraptions to as semble collections of photographs into 3-dimensional panoramas.

The pieces of "Concerning Landscape" appear gimmicky at first, but the effect is quite startling when you stand in the right place. Various photos in many shapes and sizes are arranged within each piece, held in place by plastic clips and supported by str uctures of wood, metal, and brass. By taking a normally two-dimensional landscape photo and exploding it into 3-D, Strich has turned his photographs into visual puzzles waiting to be solved. If you stand in just the right place, the whole scene snaps into place with sparkling clarity. Within the photos themselves are many strange objects (picture frames, sculptural props, measuring tape) as well as some breathtaking scenery. Like a magician revealing his tricks, Strich left artifacts of his methods (a com pass, cartographer's tools) in a few of the pictures, adding a touch of humor and irony.

Strich's pieces operate on many levels at once. His work is centered around control and manipulation: the futility of trying to "frame" or capture the open landscape, and the frustration experienced by an artist attempting to render what he sees with his eyes and mind on a mere two-dimensional surface. His pieces also delve into controlling what the viewer sees, a willful manipulation of the observer. A lot of head and body movement is required to properly view these pieces, and I had as much fun watching people shuffle, squint, and crane their necks as I did looking at the photographs.

It took Strich over two days to set this exhibit up, and it was worth every moment of the wait € it is fascinating, involving work and a challenge for the mind as well as the eye.

Across campus in the Joseph Gross Gallery, another cool refuge from the heat, six UA students have conjured up a roomful of inventive, playful sculpture. Excelling in both technical and imaginative aspects, their pieces run the gamut from abstract to poin tedly personal.

The first piece you encounter is John Poole's "Trane Stop or This Way Bern That Way Kobe," an aluminum sculpture of . . . well, an exploding saxophone. Brilliantly constructed and beautifully finished, the dense, detailed piece seems to fly apart as you w atch, while the base melts and runs down the podium. Poole's other pieces, all in bronze, are equally fascinating and stellar in technique. Look closely for the casts of his face, which shrank due to the quirks of the casting material.

Michael Campbell contributed a series of pieces that resemble aboriginal artifacts and vernacular sculpture, except that they have no apparent use. An interesting fusion of artificial parts (plastic, bolts, wire) and natural materials, his pieces seem alm ost functional, but not quite - tools for some hidden purpose or forgotten task. These artifacts raise an intriguing question: what if the creator of the first wheel or plow was an artist, not an inventor?

Dean Hamerly contributed some disturbing, yet humorous, pieces involving many, many rolling pins. He evokes surprisingly visceral images by assembling everyday objects in a 'seamless' fashion € the disparate pieces seem to fit together naturally.

Robert Fry's "Absurdus" is another seamless piece, a large frame of wood and metal resembling a giant Victrola speaker cone. Sturdy yet seemingly weightless, this piece seems to exist for no purpose but to give the air within it shape, which it does with soaring grace.

"Concerning Landscape" and "Six Sculptors" are showing through August 15th.