Friday, October 12, 2007

¿ The tiny group show "Sass" looks at feminism with a sharp, young eye; it's a lively foil for the greatest hits of '70s-era artists on view downtown at "Wack!" Overcomplicated, terrifying and terrifically funny, Amanda Douglas's sculptures of machines that appear part head-shrinking devices, part bouffantmaking hair dryers, conjure beauty shops of the 1950s and patriarchal labels of the female psyche as "hysterical." Danniel Swatosh's bawdy prints steal the hand gestures of soft-core pornography and insert them in placid natural settings that nonetheless conjure the hands' original source. Though co-opting anti-female pornography in art still worries me, especially when done by women, Swatosh's humor reveals her affinity to sisterhood.

"Sass" at Transformer, 1404 P St. NW, Wednesday- Saturday 1-7 p.m., 202-483-1102, to Oct. 20.http://www.transformergallery.org