One of the Guise

From the intelligently creepy side of the gallery comes "Guise." Deborah Oropallo's freakish visual melding of 17th- and 18th-century men with 21st-century women reminds us of the science-museum station where you sit down opposite your friend, and plexiglass sheets between you show you what your kids would look like. It's like that, only more horrifyingly beautiful, and smarter. An ultrarealistic nose points the wrong direction for one of the double-image faces, for example, only you can't tell whose face it is. The bodies of Oropallo's figures are a little easier to pry apart with your eyes, but not much. It's clear she's making a comment about the similarities of dress and posture, and masculine v. feminine norms: Somebody has a moustache, but still looks overgroomedly pretty. And don't four nostrils on one face always mean fun? Oropallo's interested in uniforms, she says, and "the two roles of dominant and submissive."
Jan. 11-Feb. 15, 2008