PUSHING THE ENVELOPE : Erika Rothenberg Sends Subversive, Sarcastic Messages in Her ‘Cards’

The other day, a greeting-card manufacturer announced a new card designed to be sent to President Clinton. The card lists nine silly things he could do to “keep America No. 1,” with space for a 10th item to be added by the sender.

But what if there were a genuinely subversive line of ready-made cards? How about a card offering sympathy to people living in a neighborhood with an unusually high rate of cancer? Or cards for abuse victims to send to their attackers? Or for attackers to send to their victims? Rueful wishes for parents whose kids are having kids? Invitations to book-burnings? Condolences for folks whose investments have plummeted in value?

The mind boggles at the Pandora’s box of socially unacceptable, or at least eyebrow-raising, sentiments that might be sailing through the U.S. mail. But that’s precisely the point of the 90 handmade greeting cards in Erika Rothenberg’s “House of Cards,” at the South Coast Plaza satellite of the Laguna Art Museum through July 20.

Unlike many other prominent artists working in a conceptual vein, Rothenberg makes work that you don’t need a broad knowledge of contemporary art to understand. Rothenberg, a former advertising agency art director, has deliberately cultivated a low-tech, slightly awkward approach, with flat, brightly colored imagery (full of unsophisticated hearts, daisies and balloons) and silly cutouts.

The finished products seem to exist in a world of their own, halfway between the slick soullessness of mass-produced messages and the earnestness of homemade projects. As a result, the touchy, sarcastic messages the cards convey assume a weird intensity--the flip side of all the polite phrases we utter while thinking something quite different.

Rothenberg’s pieces generally follow the one-two punch of the traditional card: a riddle or a seemingly innocuous wish on the cover with a gotcha tag line inside. The more successful cards in her line retain certain traditional elements: They mark specific events with expressions of congratulations, sympathy or appreciation. But Rothenberg subverts the viewer’s expectations with mordant remarks meant to wound and shock.

Fortunately, most of the cards don’t fall into the trap of telling the viewer what to believe or whose side to take. Just when viewers may think the piece is simply a primer in how to think like a liberal, they are zapped by cheerful exhortations to do hotly debated or frankly appalling things--or simply to consider the mixed results of well-meaning efforts:

* A nervous-looking young woman is pictured on the cover of a card. “Don’t go to your abortion alone . . .” the text reads. Inside, the woman reappears, encircled by people pointing fingers. Someone carries a Right to Life placard. The text continues: “Let us go with you!”

* The cover shows a black and a white hand in a handshake. Inside: “Thanks, boss! For your affirmative actions!”

* On a card decorated with teddy bears: “Remember--if you tell Mom about what we did together . . . I’ll kill you!”

* A young woman leans casually against a giant gold star. “I’m so excited that you went out with someone famous!” the cover line reads. Inside, the star has backed the woman into a corner. “. . . And so sorry that he raped you.”

* On the cover, crude images of a gun-toting black man and a bikini-clad white woman appear as images on a strip of film stock. Inside: “We appreciate your comments, but if there were really something wrong with the way Hollywood portrays women and minorities . . . we wouldn’t have sold $5.5 billion worth of tickets last year.”

These cards, arranged in a single row that circles the gallery, are quick hits, meant to be absorbed about as quickly as snack food. An allied group of three-dimensional cards have themes ranging from the heartfelt (“Please! Execute my son’s murderer!”--with a tiny body hanging from a miniature scaffold) to the goofy (“Thank you. . . . We had a great time aboard your UFO!”--with a couple waving to a departing flying saucer).

Incidentally, despite the museum’s claim that the cards are being shown for the first time on the West Coast, a smaller sampling appeared at the Rosamund Felsen Gallery in Los Angeles in 1991. The full group of cards was first shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1992.

What: “Erika Rothenberg: House of Cards.”

When: Through July 10. Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Where

Where: Laguna Art Museum South Coast Plaza Satellite, 3333 Bristol St., Suite 1000, Costa Mesa.

Whereabouts: Take the San Diego (405) Freeway to the Bristol Street exit and head north. The mall is on the left.

Wherewithal: Free.

Where to call: (714) 662-3366.

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* ART LISTINGS, Page 13