Construct, NYC #17 1984

Curator: At first glance, I find myself disoriented—delightfully so! It feels like a dreamscape cobbled together from architectural remnants, like a city planner's fever dream. Editor: Barbara Kasten’s “Construct, NYC #17,” created in 1984, asks us to reconsider our perception of space and reality, blurring the boundaries between photography, sculpture, and installation art. The work utilizes geometric shapes and mixed media within a photographic context, channeling Constructivist principles in a postmodern dialogue. Curator: It's true—those hard angles and the unexpected light sources create such intriguing disorientation. There is this lovely soft round sphere, playing so nicely against the angular shadows. Editor: Kasten’s work operates within and critiques the language of modernism, engaging specifically with its utopian visions. The photograph captures arranged materials, and by doing so she makes a clear commentary on constructed spaces, and her arrangement choices become political statements about space, gender, and power. Curator: Political statements made with foam core and studio lights? Oh, I like it, the subterfuge of play! She is really making me ask questions about surfaces. The corrugated sheets, the mirrored planes… it feels very pre-digital, almost clunky, but intentionally so, I suspect. Editor: The clunkiness is exactly right; it preempts digital image-making's promise of seamless illusion. There's also a commentary here about New York itself during the 80s, marked by urban development and economic shifts. Curator: Ah, that explains the shards. Thinking about it this way helps bring the NYC in the title into sharper focus. It certainly holds up as more than a mere study of form; it becomes a layered meditation. Editor: Indeed. Its enduring impact lies in its power to ask: How do we perceive reality? How are our perceptions shaped by the built environment and its socio-political structures? Curator: What started as my visual playground has become… something much deeper. Bravo, Barbara Kasten. Editor: Precisely, artful play disrupting societal constructs!