Light is the Essential Element | Artist Barbara Kasten | Louisiana Channel

“Without the light, you don’t have shadows. And shadow can be another form. It can be in-depth. It can create space.” Artist Barbara Kasten has been experimenting with photography since the early 1970s. Watch her show and explain how she works with everything from fluorescent plexiglass to materials she finds in the hardware store.

Barbara Kasten describes herself as a multi-media artist, even though most of her work centres around photography. She explains: “My work has always been abstract because I wasn’t trying to represent reality.” From her early studies in college and graduate school, she was introduced to and influenced by artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz and former Bauhaus professor László Moholy-Nagy. Especially Moholy-Nagy use of photograms caught Kasten’s attention, and it would later become a basis of her practice.

“I’ve always been interested in construction and assembly.” Barbara Kasten grew up in Chicago, a city known for its spectacular architecture. “It affected how I constructed things. And I think that it always reflected in the way I put things together,” she says and continues: “But the fact is that I never thought of becoming an architect.” Kasten never saw herself as being a photographer either: “I’m not a photographer. I really don’t like the dark room. My magic is in the studio with lighting,” she says and explains further: “The idea of using a spotlight on this three-dimensional construction that I made in the studio was essential. That’s my discovery of magic.”

“I feel like I’m in an experimental lab sometimes where a new discovery is a new material.” Barbara Kasten also creates large constructions using metal, fluorescent plexiglass and other materials. But year after year, she keeps returning to the photograms and photographs: “I don’t go in a direction that I plan for,” she says: “Sometimes it’s very accidental that I see something happening only through the lens.”

Barbara Kasten (b. 1936) is an American artist born in Chicago, USA. She is known for making photographs of abstract interior environments where the juxtaposition of light, objects, and mirrors forms the subject of her images. Kasten was educated in sculpture and painting, which both informs her work. She began investigating photography through cyanotypes of fabrics and photograms of objects placed directly on paper. Barbara Kasten attended California College of Arts and Crafts (MFA, 1970) and the University of Arizona, Tucson (BFA, 1959). She has had major solo institutional exhibits at Sammlung Goetz, Munich (2022); Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (2020); Graham Foundation, Chicago, IL (2016); MOCA Pacific Design Center (2016) and ICA Philadelphia (2015). Kasten has also participated in several group exhibitions at Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2022); Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2022); Busan Biennale, Busan Korea (2020); Sharjah Biennal 14, Sharjah, UAE (2019), Tate Modern, London, UK (2018) and more.

Barbara Kasten was interviewed by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen in her studio in Chicago in February 2023.

Camera: Sean Hanley
Edited and produced by: Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen

Additional acknowledgements:
Kyle Muersch, Master Welder
Nicholas Campione, Metal Supermarket, Bridgeview, IL
Frederica Sheehan, Director, Thomas Dane Gallery, Naples, Italy
Kate Bowen, Artist Assistant; video documentation in Naples
Bortolami, New York, NY
Thomas Dane Gallery, London, UK; Naples, Italy
Kadel Willborn Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany
Hannah Hoffman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2021
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.

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