SCULPTURAL WORKS

UNEARTHING BEAUTY FROM BROKENNESS
Works by Marlon F. Hall Curated by Janice Bond

It is the raw material from which beauty—and new belonging—emerges. Separate stories, geographies, and histories share a visual meditation with portals and alters that call us home. For over two decades, Marlon F. Hall has transformed found objects, photography, and film into lived stories that reveal beauty within what the world often discards. In these sculptures, that practice turns inward. Each piece is composed of fragments and inspirations—doors, wood, hardware, and inherited home materials—gathered from Houston, Tulsa, Nairobi, Madison, Venice, and Hall’s ancestral home in Homer, Louisiana, built after emancipation.

Individually and collectively, these works function as both altar and portal: altars that witness memory, and portals that open toward personal and communal renewal.

Hall, Marlon BALDWIN’S PORTAL (ARCHIVAL PHOTOS)

Found Object Sculpture
Materials: Triangular Mirrors, Reclaimed Ancient Door, Pyramid Structure Floor Suspension

  “Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” - James Baldwin

Doors symbolize pathways and portals in my work. This piece, inspired by James Baldwin's quote on love and authenticity, invites viewers to engage with the door and quote for personal reflection and healing. Interested in living with this artifact? Contact me. This James Baldwin quote became a liturgy that held the door of reflection for Marlon Hall as a Black American and Austine Adika as a Black Kenyan exploring  identity and the masks Black men wear across the diaspora. Made of found objects, triangular mirrors, and steps this sculpture functions as a place where partnering guests can read the quote on either side of the door and staircase to create a shared place to remove the masks we wear because of how we are seen. An alien space made to be human. A human space made to be alien.

Hall, Marlon  BETWEEN TWO WORLDS (ARCHIVAL PHOTOS) Sculpture/Table
Materials: Native Wood, Locally Sourced Archival Doors
Dimensions: 12 ft x 4 ft (in four 6 ft diagonal sections)

Marlon, during his residency at The Kamene Art Residency, collaborated with Kenyan-born Austine Adika on this table. Their shared joy in creating this functional sculpture transformed it into a symbol of their cultural connection. Constructed from reclaimed blue barn doors and old restaurant bathroom doors, the table, shaped like sails, serves as a vessel for storytelling and connection. At its debut, attendees reassembled the piece with strangers,fostering new friendships. (click here)

Hall, Marlon Alien Spaces

Materials: Found Objects, Photography, Door Fixtures, Hung on Archival French Doors that led to the Artists Baby Room
Dimensions: 6 ft x 4 ft (

Suspended from doors that led to the artists baby room as a child, this sculpture explores the masks the artist feels he has to wear daily because of how he is seen as a Black Man. These masks worn to protect him can sometimes impair his vision of who he is, what he can see for his future, and how systems are in place to keep him from it. The Image features archival photos he captured of Sassieon, a musical artist he met while in residence in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A man who is developing his vision for the world as a resistance to how he is seen as a black man and father.

The mask is made to create a shared place to remove the masks we wear because of how we are seen. An alien space made to be human. A human space made to be alien.

Like most of Marlon’s art work, this sculpture is supported by a film that is scored by Sassieon and told in his own words.