How can brown, monotone sculptures made from burlap talk to you in such a vivid way? The answer lies in visiting Christy Gast’s exhibit “Out of Place” at Gallery Diet. Her first solo show at this gallery, called “Batty Cave,” was a melancholy video exploration of a desolate world in Utah, based around a cave where two men had planned to live when the apocalypse came. They would live off the land. Gast also filmed little pictograms she made from bits of metal and rock, maybe in a nod to folkloric traditions that might have once existed in this now-deserted land. Next, her video “Herbert Hoover Dyke” was shown at the de la Cruz Collection, where the artist danced around the dike of Lake Okeechobee, a man-made barrier to keep the waters of the huge lake from flooding the land, but also disturbs the natural order.

It’s in that context that her current work, the burlap sculptures, should be viewed. Traditionally, burlap bags have been used to transport goods, especially products of the soil. As Diet director, Nina Johnson says, “Burlap is farmers’ material, part of working with the landscape.” That plumbing of issues of the landscape, of the ecology and how humans interact with it, form much of Gast’s work. In this case, rather than filming elements of that vast landscape, Gast brought the art indoors to the studio and crafted work from the inside.

The result are sculptures that appear in various forms, some looking like tools, a hat, maybe, if you look close enough, even a tiny gathering of people in a cave. But in all you can see the imperfections in the burlap, the uneven weaving, the pulled threads. The totality is impressive, lovely and compelling. “Out of Place refers to the notion of existing between polarities: here and there, object and idea, interior and exterior, figure and abstraction, past and present,” according to the exhibit description. “By manipulating burlap, typically used as a container for materials of potential (roots, dry legumes, soil), Gast replicates the folkloric objects, wooden planks and textiles she used to create a series of assemblages.”

“Out of Place” runs through May 12 at Gallery Diet, 174 N.W. 23rd St., Miami; www.gallerydiet.com.