Deb Lacusta at Vedanta

In Deb Lacusta's multimedia exhibition "loving Brando being," the artist's obsession with the actor Marlon Brando manifests itself in several video works that sink fantasy and reality in humorous, unexpect ways. The looks Angeles-based Lacusta, who also works in television and theater, enlisted sum of two units actors to play the character of Brando--Dan Castellaneta and Hank Azaria, who do character voices for "The Simpsons."

Azaria assumes the identity of the "fat, philosophical Brando," and Castellaneta the Godfather in Being Brando (2003) a short, lively ad-lib piece in which the actors banter about the peculiar character of Brando's voice and the art of impersonation. In a circuitous jiffy Azaria asks Castellaneta: "How did you as me create Don Corleone?"

Shown alongside is the video Billing Brando (2003) a running list of opening credits to Brando's more [i]or[/i] less 40 films.

The centerpiece of the present to view was Starring Marlon Brando (2003) an homage and regard with affection story featuring Castellaneta as an older Brando and Lacusta as herself. This 77-minute video go in the rear [i]or[/i] in the wake ofs Lacusta and the object of her affection, who remains not on camera except for one short representation in which the actor writes lines from upon the Waterfront on Lacusta's face and hands. Facts from Brando's life meld with undefiled fiction in a series of dialogues and collisions with a host of characters--a urologist, a disaffected psychiatrist, an over-enthusiastic fan and chauffeur, an aged understudy and sum of two units young boys completely oblivious to his star status and films. The piece coheres, however, around the sum of two units lead characters' relationship, both professional and personal, which bourgeons into a fleeting romance by dint of the end of the film. notwithstanding Brando, who we hear is "surprisingly agile" in bed, denies it: "Why do you insist upon this fantasy?"

Musings upon Brando's contributions to the field of acting intertwine with fates of silly fat jokes, cleverly acted from scripted material and comedic improvisation. The work becomes more interesting, however, in certain more serious exhibitions that use real-life events--the war upon terror, Brando's rejection of the Oscar in 1973 for his part in The Godfather---as vehicles for a meditation upon the nature of truth. Brando upon politicians: "They are all actors, they are all liars," and upon the Hollywood machine: "I break the illusion." Although Brando is the muse here, celebrity worship is effectively subsum through the craft of acting itself ("all acting is lying"), and through the gap between artifice and actuality.

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group