BY KERI GUTEN COHEN

Luisa Kazanas admits she's a bit of an alarmist. An avowed nature lover, Kazanas' sculpture expresses her concern about the effect of technology and science on the natural world.

'Luisa Kazanas: Origins Unknown'
Through March 26
Cranbrook Art Museum, 39221 Woodward, Bloomfield Hills
11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sun.
248-645-3323

"I look at what is happening and extrapolate the consequences," the Brooklyn, N.Y., sculptor says. "It's a better way than sitting back and accepting."

Kazanas brings her own brand of science fiction to Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills for her first solo museum exhibition.

Provocative, intriguing, disturbing, bizarre and emotionally charged, Kazanas' work contains layers of meaning. It usually takes more than one look to discern all of them.

For example, "Doublehappiness" combines the thrill of a newborn baby with a genetics experiment gone awry. Here, hanging from the wall is a flawlessly smooth baby with tiny, curling toes. However, normalcy stops there. This baby has no head, only two torsos -- male and female -- joined at the midsection.

Nearby sculptures are equally arresting. Under glass domes atop graceful pedestals are diorama-like scenes featuring taxidermic songbirds perched on branches -- one in a desolate winter scene, the other near a pond. Rather than singing contentedly, these birds are silenced by a glass helmet. In "To Reach You," a blue LED light flickers on a branch, much like a heartbeat or a homing device. At first glance, these might be happy scenes, but the more you look, the sadder you feel about the songbirds, which are protected species.

Continuing the theme of science and technology gone awry are other pieces, including a lusciously painted mountain with water spouting at points around its surface as if it is crying; a figure of a woman with no face whose luxurious hair covers her body and who has glass eyes embedded in her deeply etched tresses; a peaceful waterfall frozen in time under a glass dome that reveals toxic-looking water on second glance; and a large, slightly bumpy object, also embedded with glass eyes, placed on a pillow. Kazanas describes it as being able to "see with no recourse; it has no defenses --no arms, no legs, and it can't close its eyes."

Kazanas begins with drawings, a spontaneous way to get her ideas out, she says. Then she begins the laborious task of creating the exacting three-dimensional sculptures. Most are made of cast urethane with a baked urethane finish (similar to that of a Ferrari) that gives the pieces a highly glossed, sensual surface that begs to be touched.

Many have details connecting them to Cranbrook. For example, modernist pedestals supporting many pieces are cast from the bases of tables designed by Eero Saarinen, first president of Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Kazanas is known as a sculptor, but one of her most powerful pieces is a massive painting of a man being consumed by smoke and fire -- only his powerful legs remain untouched by the billowing smoke. Enamel and resin were used to create the emotional red image, leaving a shiny surface that adds to the intrigue. Called "Fire: Unknown Origins," Kazanas says the painting represents "her abject desire for a guy who didn't love me.

My strong emotions would either consume him or explode him. After I did the painting, I felt better with those emotions out of me." Kazanas' thought-provoking sculpture is beautiful, yet disturbing. Take "Prototype," for example. In this inverted figure of a naked child's torso with legs flailing in the air, the body is covered with nubile, breast-like bumps. In this pairing of violence against women and fertility, Kazanas finds the meaningful middle ground she seeks.

Her work is notable for its exacting workmanship, its tactile surfaces and its conceptual message that seeps slowly into our minds, challenging us to think of consequences not yet imagined.

The exhibition ends on a calm, optimistic note with a single piece in a darkened room. Here, in a massive ellipse made of layers of resin embedded with LED lights at different depths and flashing randomly, is the universe -- calm, peaceful, all-knowing.

Kazanas also curated the front gallery exhibition containing treasures from the Cranbrook collection. Many of her choices -- Eero Saarinen's futuristic model for Washington's Dulles airport terminal and Bridget Riley's undulating painting "Shih-Li" --correlate with her own exhibition. The 21 pieces will remain up through April 3.

A third exhibition also deserves attention. "Twice-told Tales: Banner Prints by Randy Bolton" is hard to miss with its colorful, wall-size prints that borrow and adapt nostalgia-evoking illustrations found in children's books and elementary school science texts. Bolton, who is artist-in-residence and head of the print media department at Cranbrook Academy of Art, adds a twist to these comforting, familiar images that prompts further consideration. This show is up through April 3.