CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 5/26/2015

Barbara Kasten: Stages

"I dream about work. I'm really so obsessed with it, I can't wait to get back in the studio because I think I know what I have to do next. But sometimes I try what I've envisioned is the answer, and it's not it. Sometimes I push and I push and it's like trying to put a round peg in a square hole. But just when you are giving up, there is an answer. It's almost like you need to push yourself to the point of such intensity, and it's when you take that breath afterward that it comes, doesn't it?" Chicago-based Barbara Kasten has been working in photography, sculpture, painting, theater, textile and installation since the 1970s. Always respected, it seems the world has suddenly caught on to how interesting the work really is. In addition to gracing the cover of our Fall 2015 catalog, Kasten's work is the subject of a critically acclaimed career retrospective at the ICA Philadelphia through August 16. "Construct 32" (1986) is reproduced from the exhibition catalog, Barbara Kasten: Stages, one of our favorite books of the coming season.