Ruby Sky Stiler has her designs on Miami at Locust Projects.

Moving around New York-based Ruby Sky Stiler’s exhibit at Locust Projects is a little like walking around an archeological dig – a very lovely one at that. There, scaffolding of unique Miami architecture is hanging around, but they are outlines of facades; the solid structures are missing. And so are the now trademark pastel colors.

Stiler has hung, for instance, brown laser-cut screens, outlines of the tropical Deco and MiMO designs we are so familiar with, but made from basic material and uniform in color. It allows us to really see the decorative flourishes of the architecture, and yet we also look through them. The result is a bit of a maze, a space that is alternating in perspective and view as you move through it, not a maquette of an actual building with defined layouts. When studying the hangings, forms take shape; when looking through, you see the all-white plaster casts on the walls. In these pieces, the tropical modernist motifs are still here, but harder to define without particular lighting. Again, it makes the experience a little like a dig, discovering lost or hidden design and detail.

According to the gallery, “Sun Breaker,” the title of the show, “refers to brise soleil, a common architectural element in the tropics – a perforated surface that is both decorative and utilitarian – that allows for the free flow of light and air through a building’s façade.” That’s pretty much what Stiler has re-created here.

On one wall, there is also an animated video in black and white with geometric shapes being shuffled around, a puzzle where the pieces will eventually take a shape.

On opening night, the back space was taken over by an exciting all-female drumming performance, the first in the “Sounding Room” project  spearheaded by local artists Felicia Chizuko Carlisle and Valerie George that will continue into April. After every performance, led by eight artists, an artifact will be left behind to leave a trace of what was once heard live.

“Sun Breaker” and “Sounding Room” run through April 18 at Locust Projects, 3852 N. Miami Ave., Miami; 305-576-8570; www.locustprojects.org.