Michael Workman

Pakistan-born artist Ruby Chisti's stitched and straw-stuffed animals and women made of cast fabric and yarn recall the Justin Lieberman tie-dyed Klan figures recently exhibited at Vedanta Gallery. Rather than commenting on racial tensions, however, Chisti's textile sculptures interrogate the flesh transformations that power the spiritual cycle of reincarnation. Quaint, isolated groups of figures illustrate the process, overlooked by a gaunt phalanx of crows. Matronly figures hunch in a circle to mourn their future, faces buried in their arms, ponytails made of yarn stretched down their backs. Unnaturally upright, a row of cows are heaped against a wall, sagging abdomens slumped over outstretched fore- and hind-legs, deflated udders splayed between their thighs. Flecked with the straw burst from the tight stitching, their innards pour unceremoniously out on the floor in front of them. These anthropomorphic creatures coolly await their turn in the cycle.

Ruby Chisti shows at Walsh Gallery, 118 North Peoria, (312)829-3312, through October 11.

(2003-09-10)

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