Over a career spanning five decades, Barbara Kasten (b. 1936, United States) has experimented with notions of space, stage and architecture through an ‘interdisciplinary performance’ between photography, sculpture, and painting. In creating her works, she assembles and photographs in her studio installations made of architectural ‘props’, such as glass, mirror, metal, or wood constructions. Space as a stage of changing reality is the central motif of the resulting artworks, with theatrical arrangements notable for their use of colour, light and shadow.
Kasten’s cross-genre practice draws upon several influences, including Modernist architecture, Constructivism, the Light and Space art movement, and the interdisciplinary approach of the Bauhaus School, in particular the work of artist László Moholy-Nagy. With its continued use of analogue photographic materials, her visionary practice has influenced a new generation of contemporary artists amidst today’s prevalence of digital imagery, Photoshop and 3D rendering.
Site Lines, Kasten’s first solo exhibition in a UK public gallery, comprises a new, site-specific commission that responds to the distinctive architectural features of the De La Warr Pavilion’s Grade I listed modernist building. Furthering her interest in the mechanisms and structures of how images are created, she has reconceived the gallery’s windows as a proscenium: a threshold between inside and outside space. Leant up against the glass are a series of coloured, acrylic beams, the forms of which echo the internal and external columns that support the Pavilion’s rectilinear geometries. Installed throughout the gallery – ‘backstage’ behind the proscenium – is a series of stage flats constructed out of metal and mirror. Kasten imagines these as ‘movie screens’ that provide a cinematic experience for visitors across the site through reflection and warping. Combined with stage lighting, these screens create a choreography of colour, light, and shadow throughout the space as its atmosphere changes with the weather outside.
Presented in the context of this new commission is a work from Kasten’s seminal Architectural Sites series (1986-89). Made on location with a single exposure and no digital intervention, this body of work restages the architectural sites of several museums and institutions through bold colours and kaleidoscopic perspectives. As reconfigurations of architectural forms shifting from two to three dimensions, this photographic series speaks to Kasten’s transformation of the gallery this summer, as she invites visitors to enter her theatrical construction and move through modernist form in real time.
On Thursday 5 September we will be having an evening opening of this exhibition. Learn more here
Barbara Kasten lives and works in Chicago. Her works are included in institutional collections such as the Museum of Modern Art New York, the Centre Pompidou Paris, the Tate Modern London, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum Washington DC, the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California. Solo exhibitions include Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany; the Aspen Art Museum (both 2020); the Philara Collection in Düsseldorf, Germany (2018); the ICA Philadelphia (2015), and the MoCA Los Angeles (2016). Her work has been part of international group exhibitions, including Women in Abstraction at the Centre Pompidou, the Sharjah Biennial 14, Bauhaus and America, LWL – Landesmuseum Münster, History of Photography at Sprengel Museum Hannover, Shape of Light at Tate Modern London, and Color Mania at Fotomuseum Winterthur.
Exhibition supported by:
Special thanks:
Jonathan Dixon
IN THE PRESS
DOWNLOAD THE PRESS RELEASE HERE
There are plenty of welcoming and good value B&Bs & boutique hotels in Bexhill. The De La Warr Pavilion regularly uses the following :
- By Rail
Direct trains go from London Victoria, Brighton and Ashford to Bexhill.
There are also trains from London Charing Cross, changing at St. Leonards Warrior Square and from London Bridge or Charing Cross going to Battle. Battle is only a short taxi journey away (15 mins approx).
Visit www.nationalrail.co.uk for up-to-date train travel information. - Taxis
Town Taxis: 01424 211 511
Parkhurst Taxis: 01424 733 456 - By Car
If driving from the London area:
Take the M25, then A21 to Hastings. Turn off at John‘s Cross and follow the signs to Bexhill.
OR
Take the A22 to Eastbourne, go across the Bishop roundabout to the A271 and follow the signs to Bexhill and the seafront. The De La Warr Pavilion is on the Marina.
From the Brighton area:
Follow the A27 out of Brighton until you arrive in Bexhill On Sea. - Parking
Please be aware the Rother District car park outside the De La Warr Pavilion operates paid parking until 7pm. After this time parking is free. There is also lmiited free car parking along the seafront.
Within the limits of this Grade One listed building, the De La Warr Pavilion strives to be fully accessible with a range of facilities to support your visit.
Assistance Dogs are permitted into the building.
Please contact the Box Office on 01424 229 111 to arrange a visit.
Facilities for disabled visitors
- Ramped access at the front of the building
- A low counter at the Box Office and Information Desk
- Disabled toilets on two floors
- A lift to all floors
- Accessible galleries on both floors
- An accessible Café
- Spaces for wheelchairs in the auditorium for seated events
- Ramped access in the auditorium for events during the day
- Ramped access into the Studio
- Two travel wheelchairs are available for use at the De La Warr Pavilion. To reserve, please call our box office and information desk on (01424) 229111 or ask a member of staff on arrival. The chairs are provided on a first come, first served basis and are intended for use inside the Pavilion. Please contact us for more information.
Facilities for blind or visually-impaired
- Large print season brochures
Facilities for the hard-of-hearing
- An T-Switch induction loop in some areas of the auditorium (please indicate when booking as this facility is not available on the balcony)
- British Sign Language interpretation tours of the building and exhibitions are available on request.