"...twisting, tilting and bending...serves its historical message with effective symbolism." - Art Review, The New York Times

It is easy to respond to the spirited inventiveness of Sana Musasama's totemlike ceramic sculpture in this small but impressive presentation of five five pieces from a series inspired by her research into the 19-century abolitionists known as the Maple Tree movement. Often marching with branches, they advocated maple syrup tapping as an alternative to the slave-based sugar cane industry.

While each large, fanciful form comes across as an energized tree trunk, twisting, tilting and bending, it also serves its historical message with effective symbolism. One five-foot, bead-encrusted shaft, for example, is topped by a hand intended to show the limb as a vulnerable labor tool. A nurturing earth carpet surrounds the work and holds more than score of five-fingered multicolored shapes that seem to metamorphize from leaf to hand an back again. Other works suggest their nurturing with patterns of colored shards that spread over the floor like a root system.

Human scale reinforces the metaphors. A horizontal piece resting on a bed of shards and ceramic leaves has the organic presence of a reclining nude. Smaller forms within the partially open trunk suggest animal life.

A great variety of shapes derive from nature yet have a fanciful appearance. Most are developed as opportunities for complex meanings.