In this preview from the "Chicago" episode of Season 8 of "Art in the Twenty-First Century," artist Barbara Kasten stages photographs using light and Plexiglass in her Mana Contemporary Chicago studio. "It's a constant process of being in the set, moving the lights, going behind the camera, looking at the image that's resulting," says the artist. "That can take hours, actually." Barbara Kasten makes photographs and video projections in her studio that evoke an experience of movement through modernist architecture. While abstract, her work is subversively political, asking viewers to fundamentally question their perceptions. When recorded by her large-format camera—and without digital manipulation—Kasten’s arrangements become ambiguous in scale, confusing in spatial dimensions, and uncertain in differentiation between surface, shape, and shadow. On a grander scale, Kasten also pictures architectural spaces and landscapes, manipulating the environment through carefully placed mirrors and dramatic gemlike tones. Kasten’s video projections of rotating objects and planes of drifting color, cast onto building exteriors and interiors, destabilize the architecture through the optical fragmentation of forms. Learn more about the artist at: http://www.art21.org/artists/barbara-kasten Watch the FULL EPISODE online (http://www.art21.org/videos/episode-chicago) or from PBS streaming apps (http://www.pbs.org/anywhere). Season 8 of "Art in the Twenty-First Century" premiered with the "Chicago" episode on Friday, September 16, 2016 at 9:00 p.m. on PBS. Learn more about Season 8 at: http://www.art21.org/season8

Comments

1. the idea is creative but the way she's using that idea is not