ART REVIEW : FRINGE FESTIVAL : THREE WOMEN’S UNBALANCED ‘QUEST’

“The Quest for Balance” is a forlorn-looking show that seems to speak in whispers and tie itself in a knot. Rumpled, dark and brooding, the work isn’t bad, just bereft--with the “balance” weighted on the down side.

In the exhibition of sculpture at the Woman’s Building, Barbara Magnus shows organic forms of bark and paper, intricately stitched together in wire. These floppy tubes, empty pods and a big, doughnut-like shape that hangs from the ceiling recall shed skins or other forsaken containers of living things.

Marsia Alexander displays geometric structures as foundations for poetic musing. Her greenish stack of used silkscreens on the floor appears to be an abandoned record of artistic activity. A series of wall pieces traps hopeful words-- breath, word, whisper, wind, heartbeat-- on tiny, light rectangles in the center of smoky gray screens or sets them loose on a spiral.

Echiko Ohira offers compressed masses of painted cardboard that recall craggy mountains or sharply striated cliffs. Composed of rough modules pressed into irregular forms and painted solid black or red, Ohira’s work is relatively formal, but it refers to nature at its most weathered and stressed.

The three artists may have a common goal, but each seeks it in her own quiet way. What they seem to share is an attitude that art is an internal, rather constricted affair that reflects on the transitory nature of life.

“Quest” is part of the Fringe Festival and continues to Sept. 25. Hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.