I visited two WA Festival Fringe visual art exhibitions midway through the season – Masks of Mandurah by a group of Mandurah artists showing in the foyer of the QV2 Building and Robert McCaffrey's Phantasea 2000 on show at Arts House Gallery. There were masks a plenty in common with some kitsch thrown in, but there the similarity ended, for just as they were located in opposite ends of the city so too each show explored in different directions.

Masks of Mandurah took a fairly conventional line in working the mask as a means for individual projection/expression. There were a lot of highly decorated masks and masks that disguised themselves as something else. Masks without openings as well as others that were little more than a frame, hardly there. And crafty masks, caricatures, and others paying homage to a wide variety of European art styles and Australian icons. Overall the exhibition attempted to pull together very diverse interpretations and adaptations of and for the meaning and use of masks, under the very broad theme of A Celebration of Life from Womb to Wisdom. My favourites were the lollipop masks because of its relevant pop art reference (for Mandurah/for today) and the mask decorated with squares of fabric because it so closely resembled, or contained, something of the mystique of an ancient Aztec mask, which really was intrinsic to a culture.

The works said little about Mandurah, the people or the place, and I wondered about using the mask to begin with. Was it something to hide behind or was it simply the easiest way to pull together a very large and diverse group of people into one creative project? Only in the title's alliteration did there seem any point at all in basing the groups creative expression around the mask, since masks hardly play a part in either the contemporary culture of Mandurah, or the state or the nation. Except that is the most interesting one we wear today - the mask that is our own face.

At Phantasea artist/designer McCaffrey arranged a friendly and eclectic shop-front for all of his creative endeavours which ranged from commercial pieces of cushion covers and clothing, to paintings, ceramics and drawings, with some items of furniture, mardi gras inspired dolls and masks. All revealed the homoerotic side of life. Described as "set in the wet" it became fairly clear upon entering that this was not literally about a day at the beach.

The ocean here is one of emotion, relationships and commitment to a community on the fringe of the mainstream. There was abundant reference to the iconography of the international gay scene. All and well, but I wondered about what was not being said behind the clichés. What of the artist's life beyond the stereotypes? Only in the paintings did a sensitivity of line and such fabulous colour describe his feelings for the people close to him. The rawness of execution and subject matter of the ceramic pieces belied the individual touch that was fascinating and exhilarating.

However, as I left both shows I couldn't help thinking there was a whole lot more interesting stuff about the artists, and their lives, still hiding away behind the mask.