In “Fools, Jesters, and Clowns,” Seattle sculptor David Traylor uses ceramic, fur, barbed wire, and torn lace to create strange, urnlike sculptures—all with a dose of sadomasochism in them. Based loosely on the wise fools of Shakespeare’s plays, the works often resemble large instruments of torture: a cat-o’-nine-tails fashioned from ceramic and strips of lace attempts to soar upward but is tethered to the ground by a large weight. In Yorick (pictured), a whiplike baton is covered in a dense matrix of black feathers and rubber strips, like something out of a twisted boudoir. Another of these dark, shadowy forms is capped with a conelike top, immediately bringing to mind the infamous Abu Ghraib photo of a hooded prisoner with electric cables dangling from his body. Traylor’s ambivalent pieces “take upon us the mystery of things,” as King Lear once said, and reveal that the tragic contains hints of the playful, and vice versa. Meet the artist: 3-5 p.m. Sat. April 16. Gallery 110, 110 S. Washington St., 206-624-9336. Noon-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat.