Wilshire Center

Beefy Constructions: Known for the delicacy of her paper and stick forms, the newest constructions of Ann Page come as something of a shock. Beefier, less kite-like, almost tuberous, at times they recall the pod shapes of Magdalena Abakanowicz. Fleshiness makes for intriguing, disturbing objects rife with bodily associations that seem to be mutating to some other kind of life form.

Like embryos, these forms develop physically, making the artist’s chain of thought tangible and leading toward increasingly solid organic masses. Folding, unfolding, cutting, numbering, and tying off creates solids that suggest molecular models as well as fetal forms.

Page disconcertingly nails down those associations in pieces like “Dog-leg Left” and “Medley (Alliteration V),” two wall-mounted sculptures festooned with bulbous wads of bound cloth. Part pupa, part side of beef they may be the end of the evolutionary chain hinted at in the many layered installation “. . . the ‘success’ of previous flights.” But the way these new pieces flip back and forth between life and death, evolution and abortion, they offer no easy--or even comfortable--answers. (Space, 6015 Santa Monica Blvd., to March 31.)