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 Gilbert Theatre 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. The event is free and a reception 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. The 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 performances and accumulation as mass in her sculptures.
in-bitween, reveals Casals’ underlying preoccupation with the characteristics of opposites: restraint and gravity, limitation and abundance, weight and weightlessness, 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 experiences 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 Spanish with my parents. By the time of my adulthood, my parents returned to Argentina and visited me regularly in the United States. Visiting them regularly, I noticed my mother language was stunted. When my parents passed and not having spoken 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 performance 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. The five-hour March 19th performance is durational. Instead of performing 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. The 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 coming 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 achievements 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 following: “Intrusion” Installation, Projecto áce, Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2013; “Is That A Gun In Your Pocket” Studio 10, Brooklyn NY Performance, 2017; “Labour” Performance/Installation — SVA Open Studios, 2017; and 2020 “Parabola-Parable” Language-Mother Tongue, The Immigrant Artists Biennial, NYC Performance.