CLAIRE ASHLEY: (((CRZ.F.4NRS.AAK)))

At 808 Gallery, Boston University,

808 Commonwealth Ave., through Dec. 3. 617-353-3329, www.bu.edu/art

Claire Ashley’s installation of roughly 30 inflatables overtakes Boston University’s immense 808 Gallery like a spread of fast-growing mushrooms.

The artist sews the pillowy soft and randomly shaped pieces together in a small studio before she inflates them, unsure of how they’ll look. Here, they sprawl on the floor, snuggle, and balloon to the ceiling, which is more than 17 feet high.

Ashley, who is Scottish, calls the show “(((CRZ.F.4NRS.AAK))),’’ a frenetic-looking code for “Crazy Female Foreigners Alive and Kicking’’ — a sly, feminist battle cry in the face of current political realities and immigration policies.

The show, too, is frenetic and coded: amid the buoyancy and frolic of a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, it roots itself in painting’s history and has dark emotional undertones. Ashley paints the inflatables — some in messy, punctuated gestures recalling Abstract Expressionism; two in black, like early Frank Stellas, another scribbled over like a Cy Twombly. I spotted one grid.

In addition to black and white, she uses punchy Day-Glo tones. Some of the balloons are lit from within. The two black ones have windows; inside, blue balloons pile up, some painted with a single eye. While the installation’s colors grab you by the lapels, the fleshly forms, swelling here, sagging there, tell stories.

A smallish inflatable nestles inside a big apron tied to a giant one. That’s endearing, until you see that the apron strings pull the top of the big one harshly down at a 90-degree angle. Suddenly what seemed like a sweet, parent-child relationship looks demanding and enmeshed.

Ashley installs the pieces more densely on one side of the gallery. They slouch against architectural columns, and lean drunkenly into one another. One splays on the floor, half-deflated, looking creased and weary. That one note turns the whole scene into an ecosystem, cycling through death and rebirth.

Such small touches, in the end, make a smart, fun, absurd installation into something strangely human and unexpectedly poignant.

CLAIRE ASHLEY: (((CRZ.F.4NRS.AAK)))

At 808 Gallery, Boston University, 808 Commonwealth Ave., through Dec. 3. 617-353-3329, www.bu.edu/art

Cate McQuaid can be reached at catemcquaid@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @cmcq.