Done well, art can serve as a clarion for the rest of society, delivering a shock to the system that might not be perceived through other media.

Lori Jae Reich knows all about art that shakes people's sensibilities.

Several of her prescient works, completed before last Sept. 11 and based on the horrible treatment of women in some parts of the world, including then Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, will be on display in the exhibit Reality Barbie Unveiled through Oct. 31 at East End Gallery in Appleton.

"I've been doing paintings since 1998 on the Taliban and what they've been doing to women, and people were very unaware of Afghanistan and the Taliban at the time," said Reich, a Green Bay artist. "With Reality Barbie, I started with newspaper articles I've collaged in there from when an Iranian woman tried to seek a divorce. She had acid thrown on her, which was totally acceptable in her society, and I found that to be rather atrocious. So I was working on putting something together that could show not only the atrocities that were going on in the Taliban fundamentalist society, but also to show what America's mental images were, and actually we live in a sort of Madison Avenue type of society where we all live with this so-called Barbie image of perfection."

"I thought that was so superficial, people being very concerned with beauty and image and that. And then all of a sudden I put a thought together. How many million times do women get face lifts or acid treatments on their skin, and here was a woman who had acid thrown on her because she wanted a divorce, and I put that together and thought, we have to come into the real world, Barbie."

That "real world" is something people who live in Western countries, and who might take their wealth and freedoms for granted, need to understand better, said Reich.

"I feel the statement I'm trying to make is, 'Wake up, let's be alert to this,'" said Reich. "Let's see how oppressed women still are in the global society, and let's not be so concerned about superficial image as much as being concerned with the deep types of emotional and physical things going on with women in the world."

Given the subject matter of much of her work, it's not surprising that Reich uses less-than-delicate imagery to get her points across.

Among her pieces are "All I Will Ever See," about a Nigerian woman who was gang-raped by another family for an alleged indiscretion by her brother, and "Who Casts the First Stone?," a painting based on an incident where a Middle Eastern woman was stoned to death for having a child out of wedlock.

"There's very harsh imagery in my work, but it's there for a reason," said Reich. "If I use any type of gory imagery it's to make people stop and look, and a lot of times people will be taken aback by it. But if it brings them to the painting to look at it, study it, (it's worth it)."

Reich also focuses on issues such as hatred in society, environmentalism, corporate greed, and freedom of speech.

"I've got a piece that's brand new for this show called 'Free Speech Dies,'" said Reich. "This piece is about the fact that if you oppose or protest your government you're considered a traitor. Dissent is looked at as being unpatriotic, when this is exactly what this country is about is free speech. Free speech is extremely important to our way of life because if we didn't have free speech we'd be exactly like these other countries I'm talking about around the world."

Reich and Jack Dillhunt were among two local artists invited to show at Baltimore's American Visionary Art Museum's new exhibit High on Life, Transcending Addiction. Reich sees the nod as a great honor, considering the museum has been named by an official vote of Congress the official national museum repository and education center for the best in original self-taught artistry.

"I was invited to show four of my pieces," said Reich. "If I had gotten one in I would have been walking on air, but they invited me to show four."

Reich said her work also fit well with the theme of the exhibit -- addiction and recovery.

"In most of my paintings, when I show global turmoil, I usually show alcohol and drug addiction, cigarette smoking -- all those things are in my paintings," said Reich. "That's why they picked so many of my paintings, because I show how this is a constant turmoil in our society, especially with our young people."

Reality Barbie Unveiled is on display through Oct. 31 at East End Gallery, 121 E. College Ave., Appleton. For more information call (920) 734-4278.

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