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Joe Forrest Sackett lets on immediately that his artwork isn't about pretty vistas or minimalist tranquility.

Pieces are titled "Our Policy in the Middle East" and "First Amendment" and "Post 9-11 World."

It's political art. And it's very difficult to do right.

Politics is complicated stuff, and successful political art must transcend the simplistic and obvious, while provoking thought.

Plenty get that far but fail because the artist isn't really an artist. Many people have something to say, but don't have the soul or skill of a painter, sculptor or photographer.

Message or no message, no one wants a poorly done piece of art on the wall.

Sackett delivers both content and quality.

In a brave, exquisite show at the Harwood Art Center, he presents 14 pieces that each speak volumes about the world today and its sad fixation on intolerance, war and loss of personal freedom.

He calls his pieces "constructions" because they are built of steel, wood, rebar, barbed wire, mesh and objects ranging from bullets to bunnies. They are flawlessly composed and assembled - Sackett is a former cabinetmaker - and the fine quality of the art draws the viewer in to contemplate the message.

Sackett offers layers of clues that are subtle and not so subtle, leaving each person to interpret the meaning his or her own way. He underscores his points with a dose of wit, so you smile as you ponder.

It's a wonderful artistic experience.

"I'm interested in ideas," says Sackett, a New Mexico native who is also a playwright and has taught developmental education at CNM. "I want to be able to start a conversation, an internal conversation."

He starts one with the first piece in the show, the terrific "Flag 2004." This is a backward flag, the stars on the wrong side, the colors off. The word "caution" trails across one set of stripes, and a broken version of the song "This Land is Your Land" across the other. Under the 20 stars are the faces of such people as George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh and Billy Graham. Splashed across the stripes is a sticker reading "We Have Your Country."

In "Homeland," the letters that spell that word are cut into a framed montage of U.S. state maps. The maps are marked by pins, arrows and lines like you'd see in a police investigation room. The whole thing is broken in half and, in a powerful touch, an androgynous mesh face bursts from the "O" in "homeland" in a silent cry.

The aptly named "Smile . . ." finds a metal flag with a question mark for stars surrounded by barbed wire and rebar. At the bottom are two dingy patriotic ribbons; at the top are two surveillance cameras that move in on the viewer. A metal plaque urges "Don't Worry - Be Happy" as the cameras whir. It's a piece of artwork you won't soon forget.

Other standouts are "Post 9-11 World," in which a blindfolded and gagged Easter Bunny, soft and furry, is detained in a cold steel cage; "Hegemon," the face of a soldier built of metal parts topped by a helmet that reads "YOU"; "First Amendment," a fleshy human tongue held immobile by steel spikes; and "Habeas Corpus," images of the Declaration of Independence pierced by a bullet hole.

Sackett ends his show with the simple "Dicho." The words "When Weapons Speak Laws Are Silent" are carved into steel plates that hang vertically.

It sends you out the door with a head full of thoughts.

One of mine: great politics, great art.