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Jacobo Castellano’s mixture of sculpture, installation, photography, and collage reflects a personalized exploration of domestic structures (houses and corrals) and what happens within them. Suggestive of typological studies of edifices and repeating forms, Castellano’s photographs of crudely assembled corrals in the Saharan desert (Corrales series, 2004) focus on the formal qualities of the structures, yet allow for these details to suggest the social context in which the corrals are found. Obscured by found objects (old cardboard cartons, discarded clothing, goat skins, repurposed signs), whatever is inside of these structures is hidden from view, while small dwellings and countless other corrals linger on the edge of the horizon.
In his new sculpture Desastre (2006) Castellano moves back into the home, reminding the viewer of his earlier pieces such as his Casa series (2005). In all of these works, endearing objects from a house - scraps of wallpaper, snapshots, and blankets - are juxtaposed against coarse building materials such as doors, segments of walls, window frames. Arranged on scaffolding and suspended by rope, leather, and hooks, these forms reveal ruptures in the state of dwelling – cluttered and haphazardly placed furniture and dishes strewn across countertops suggest that those who lived here left in a hurry - and maybe not on their own accord; this unsettling feeling is further linked back to his Corrales through the use of leather and ominous-looking hooks (Casa I, 2005). In his carefully constructed chaos, Castellano effectively communicates an attempt at order in the face of impending disaster. (Are the dishes done? Are the blankets on the beds?) While the artist’s snapshots convey feelings of intimacy, of belonging, their precarious composition and installation leave the viewer with an impression of storm and unrest. And of course, these metaphors of a house that is falling apart in the midst of a storm can signify a sense of disaster extending beyond the physical structure itself. (JT)
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