Cheap thrills: Australian artist puts a friendly twist on cheesy horror

	Facing off a creature in "The Embrace."

Before "Star Wars," "Star Trek" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," there were space creatures who slithered, oozed and crept across movie back lots, going bump in the stage lights of the celluloid experience.

Australian artist Patricia Piccinini gives cheesy horror a friendly twist. In sculptures, photos, drawings and videos, she advances the idea that icky creatures are our friends.

"The Embrace" is a full-size replica of herself rearing back, a hairless oddity having landed smack on her face. According to the Frye, which is giving her a solo exhibit co-sponsored by the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa, Piccinini examines the "precarious relationships among animals, nature, science and technology."

Hogwash. Her work is a cheap thrill, infantilizing audiences back to the time when they worried about who was under the bed. She makes monsters. Big deal. Her drawings are corny, her video portentous and her sculptures a classy form of carnival life. The fact that she represented Australia in the 2003 Venice Biennale is no reason to get excited. I don't understand what her exhibit is doing at the Frye. Phone home, E.T. You're past your art museum pull date.

Through Jan. 6. 704 Terry Ave. Free admission.

-- Regina Hackett