Installation of Michael Jones McKean.

Maybe the first thing to jump out at you when taking in the Michael Jones McKean solo show, “we float above to spit and sing” at the Emerson Dorsch Gallery, is the lighting. (It’s the first outing in Miami from the associate professor of sculpture at Virginia Commonwealth University, who just finished up a residency at Cannonball.)

The soft, low lighting that accentuates many of the sculptures, incorporated in fact into the box frames, are set into the top of those frames. They create a special effect, one that makes the eye linger far longer than intended, as the individual light element bathes each piece.

But these aren’t light works. They are sculptures – colored in green, white, black – that resemble artifacts or specimens of some sort. The white sculpture, for instance, is made up of potted plants. Obviously they are artificial, and form an almost eerie installation. With the light from above the encased work, you can see each plant has a little lump – they are representations of tiny pieces of meteor debris. It’s a theme that starts to emerge as you “float above” and gather up the details in the exhibit. All the works are somehow related to debris; of an ancient world, and a contemporary one.

The black sculpture incorporates a cell phone, a flip-flop, pottery, a flask, a hammer; the accoutrements of life from the past and the hyper now. The most dramatic piece is a grouping of heads, or busts, that seem to resemble both Age of Discovery mariners and modern musicians. Tied together, they seem to be floating through time.

Wall box sculptures from McKean.

There is something reminiscent of a trip through 19th-century cabinets of curiosity, those boxes and cases in which European explorers and travelers exhibited the artifacts they picked up in exotic locales. But of course today, exotic has another meeting – more like these otherworldly creations from McKean.

“we float above to spit and sing” from Michael Jones McKean runs through July 31 at Emerson Dorsch Gallery, 151 NW 24th St., Miami; www.dorschgallery.com.