Marlo Pascual's Cinematic Sculptures at Casey Kaplan

Marlo Pascual's debut solo exhibition at Casey Kaplan Gallery in New York (January 7 – February 13, 2010) transformed the space into a deserted film set. The American artist arranged silent relics—a chair, lamp, coat rack, table, pedestal, two projectors—alongside black-and-white photographs sourced from the internet and flea markets. These images, featuring a woman with a braided bun, a nude silhouette, grinning men, and still lifes, were cropped, enlarged, or fragmented, evoking the icy aesthetic of 1940s-50s photography. They remained unframed, with surrounding furniture acting as contours. Sculptural elements included a stone pedestal for an inverted male head, a plant pressed onto a split female face, a surrealist overturned table and chair, and long legs on a mini-screen. Pascual's sophisticated stagings reference Hollywood director Douglas Sirk's melodramas, generating unease. A standout in-situ piece shows a woman's index finger pointing out of its frame across a dark wooden band traversing the gallery, symbolizing her desire to leap beyond photography into a new sculptural language, challenging post-minimalist trends. The review by Julie Boukobza praises Pascual's graceful subversion of the exhibition format.