Mariana Castillo Deball
Conceptual sculptor Mariana Castillo Deball uses fragmentation, warping, and juxtaposition to call attention to social perceptions of science and facticity. Using a variety of materials, Deball’s sculptures typically rely on elements of optical illusion and transformation. Deball was born and raised in Mexico and now works in Berlin; as a result, her art can be understood as referring in equal measure to Western, post-Enlightenment forms of information production as well as to traditional, pre-colonial systems of magic and representation.
For Uncomfortable Objects, her 2012 project at dOCUMENTA, Deball crafted a wall out of stucco and rendered it in the likeness of brightly colored marble. The wall sloped and slumped in a declining curve and was based on a formula developed by mathematician Felix Klein in his study of non-Euclidean geometry. As such, the colors and the materials referred to non-Western sources, while the intellectual framework was pulled from methodologies of the contemporary avant-garde, and Klein’s formula relates to systematized mathematics outside of the traditional scope of academic geometry.
Deball has been the subject of solo shows at CCA in Glasgow, the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, and Kunsthalle St. Gallen. In addition to showing her work at …
Conceptual sculptor Mariana Castillo Deball uses fragmentation, warping, and juxtaposition to call attention to social perceptions of science and facticity. Using a variety of materials, Deball’s sculptures typically rely on elements of optical illusion and transformation. Deball was born and raised in Mexico and now works in Berlin; as a result, her art can be understood as referring in equal measure to Western, post-Enlightenment forms of information production as well as to traditional, pre-colonial systems of magic and representation.
For Uncomfortable Objects, her 2012 project at dOCUMENTA, Deball crafted a wall out of stucco and rendered it in the likeness of brightly colored marble. The wall sloped and slumped in a declining curve and was based on a formula developed by mathematician Felix Klein in his study of non-Euclidean geometry. As such, the colors and the materials referred to non-Western sources, while the intellectual framework was pulled from methodologies of the contemporary avant-garde, and Klein’s formula relates to systematized mathematics outside of the traditional scope of academic geometry.
Deball has been the subject of solo shows at CCA in Glasgow, the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, and Kunsthalle St. Gallen. In addition to showing her work at dOCUMENTA 13, Deball has also exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Migros Museum in Zurich, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit, The Athens Biennial, the 54th Venice Biennale, and Manifesta 7. Deball was awarded the Zurich Art Prize in 2012 and the Berlin Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst in 2013.
