Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM MARCH 16 - 22, 2022 UCW 21 EVENT Residents in Fayetteville and the region have the unique opportunity to experience an uncommon type of artform by visual artist Marcela Casals — a performance work titled in-bitween. Casals, who lived in Fayetteville for many years and now resides in the New York City area, was invited to participate in the 2021-2022 Fine Art Series at Fayetteville State University in the Department of Performing and Fine Arts. Before Marcela Casals decided to complete a degree in sculpture and ceramics at FSU, she was a well- known actor and director at the Gil- bert eatre in Fayetteville. By 2017 Casals had completed the visual art degree in sculpture and ceramics at FSU, a Post Baccalaureate degree at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and a Master of Fine Arts at the School of Arts in New York. After graduation, she remained in New York as a performance artist. Casals has created an immersive sculpture installation in Rosenthal Gallery to perform in-bitween on two different days: March 18th and 19th. e event is free and a recep- tion to meet the artist will follow the March 19th performance from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Ellington White Contemporary Gallery on Gillespie Street in downtown Fayetteville. Before leaving Fayetteville, Casals was invited to create a sculpture installation in the west gallery at the Arts Council of Fayetteville in 2013. e paper and fabric used in the installation titled woodforeststream became her signature materials. From descending sculptural forms to sculptural projections, Casals utilizes neutral and/or black/white paper or fabric to express content. Using easily accessible materials Casals inspires meaning from a minimal approach in her perfor- mances and accumulation as mass in her sculptures. in-bitween, reveals Casals' un- derlying preoccupation with the characteristics of opposites: re- straint and gravity, limitation and abundance, weight and weightless- ness, culture and nonculture, lastly, language and the voiceless. After the performance, the immersive sculpture installation remains in place until April 8, 2022, for visitors to Rosenthal Gallery to experience — the video recording of in-bitween will play on a large monitor. In talking about the content for in-bitween Casals shared her experi- ences with language as "innate and foreign, a bridge and a barrier. After arriving with my parents in NYC from Buenos Aires at the age of nine, not speaking a word of English … in a years' time I spoke it fluently. Time passed and I only spoke Span- ish with my parents. By the time of my adulthood, my parents returned to Argentina and visited me regu- larly in the United States. Visiting them regularly, I noticed my mother language was stunted. When my parents passed and not having spo- ken Spanish for two years, I came to experience a sense of loss. I was no longer from my birthplace and not 100% from where I grew up… my experience with language, that everyday sound defines this middle space I inhabit: not from there, not from here, in-bitween." Visitors to in-bitween perfor- mance do not need to know Casals' idea behind the sculpture and performance, they can experience whatever their sensibilities respond to during the event. Knowing the artist's intent before visiting the gallery could give visitors insight and perhaps influence a new and surprisingly pleasing experience. Visitors do not have to stay the entire time of the performance; they can quietly come and go during either of the performances. e five-hour March 19th performance is durational. Instead of perform- ing for the complete five hours, the artist will take short breaks, then re-enter the performance. A master class is scheduled for the art students — the public is welcome to attend. e artist will briefly talk about the history of performance art and how theatre and being a trained studio artist has influenced her style. Instead of the master class, visitors can go to this YouTube link prior to com- ing to the gallery for in-bitween: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=xsO9K3twk3E As an actor, Casals has a long list of memorable theater performances over the years. Since becoming a visual artist, her list of achieve- ments continues to grow. While an art student in 2011, Casals was one of the artists who participated in the "500 Hands" North Carolina Veterans Park, in Fayetteville, NC. Like the other artists, Casals was assigned and traveled to 12 counties in North Carolina to cast the hands of veterans and their supporters for Veterans Park. Some of her installations and performances includes the follow- ing: "Intrusion" Installation, Pro- jecto áce, Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2013; "Is at A Gun In Your Pocket" Studio 10, Brooklyn NY Performance, 2017; "Labour" Per- formance/Installation — SVA Open Studios, 2017; and 2020 "Parabola- Parable" Language-Mother Tongue, e Immigrant Artists Biennial, NYC Performance. in-bitween: An immersive sculpture installation, performance art exhibit by SONI MARTIN SONI MARTIN, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com 910-484-6200. Images f rom the performance art installation, in-bitween. Marcela Casals creates an immersive sculpture installation in Rosenthal Galler y and per- forms in-bitween. (Photos courtesy of Marcela Casals.) PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE • March 18, 11 to 12:30 p.m., Rosenthal Gallery, FSU, in-bitween performance • March 18, 1 to 2 p.m., Choir Room in Rosenthal, FSU, Master Class by Marcela Casals • March 19, 12:30 to 5 p.m., Rosenthal Gallery, FSU, in-bitween durational performance • March 19, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Reception for Casals, Ellington-White Contemporary Gallery, Gillespie St., downtown Fayetteville, NC • March 21-April 8, Immersible Sculpture Installation, Rosenthal Gallery