Stop. What is that?

The Autzen Gallery is housing a strange noise this month, a rasping breath somewhere in between the lull of machines and the drum of indistinguishable voices. It seems reasonable enough that the noise could be the different parts of the installation talking to one another.

Stephanie Robison’s sculptural work, which combines wooden structures with playfully hand-sewn objects such as mirrored red bricks, has a lovingly built feel to it, as do Paula Rebsom’s staged photographs, which build on pre-existing and specially built, yet incomplete structures.

The work does not speak volumes on big, unreasonable questions, but it does carry on a private conversation, very faintly, which moves in currents from one object to the next. The similar themes in each artist’s work, both very much interdisciplinary, are brought into play in the exhibit in ways that would seem more boundless when taken alone.

In Rebsom’s “View of Mt. Hood from Sidewalk,” the image of the mountain glimmers vaguely on a window in the top of the frame, while the focus in the center is an obstructive wooden structure that obscures the side of a house. The rest of the frame gives no clues as to its meaning or use.

Occupying a single wall on the far end of the gallery, as if avoiding the windows and light that dominate the majority of the space, Rebsom’s sparse use of two framed photographs are a trademark she used to great effect in her first solo exhibit at Tilt Gallery and Project Space in 2006.

The lone pair of photographs emphasizes the elaborately staged nature of Rebsom’s work. Part performance, part sculpture and part wild zoo, the photographs each exhibit a complete world that is only partially fantastic, but which changes the relationship fantasy has to everyday life.

Spread out through the room, Robison’s sculptural arrangements build on some of Rebsom’s themes, but then depart for a more formal direction. The arrangements are appealing because of their construction: clean, concise and yet expressively crafty. Each sculpture seems both pleasingly tactile and untouchable; you wouldn’t want to mar its precise simplicity.

Organized by Autzen curator Jenene Nagy, also co-founder of Tilt Gallery and currently a part-time faculty member at Portland State, Robison’s and Rebsom’s work appears different here than in prior shows at Tilt or other galleries, because of the added context that differentiates and further develops each artist’s work.

Roadside Attractions is up in the Autzen Gallery, on the second floor of Neuberger Hall, until March 14. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.