Barbara Kasten: Beauty Was a Problem | Art21 "Extended Play"

I love these pieces.

Besides the fact that they're history to me,

I just think they're beautiful.

For a long time, I thought they were too beautiful.

Beauty is a problem sometimes in art making.

In the '70s, the rest of the world thought
that beauty was a weakness;

but the reality is, it's a strength.

I think, just as other things
have changed in the world,

things come around, you know.

[CURATOR]
--So exciting, I'm dying to see this.

[LAUGHS]

--That is beautiful.

--Oh my gosh, Barbara, this is exciting. I love it!

[KASTEN]
--I'm going to work with this again, I'm sure.

--I like it. Yeah, I like it.

This was my first attempt at photography.

It's called cyanotype.

It's a liquid emulsion that's a mix of
iron and bleach.

Any object can be placed on it
and exposed in sunlight.

When it's washed, it turns blue.

Blue is such a spiritual color.

I love the fact that this blue
can be so intense.

In the '70s,
when I was teaching textile sculpture,

I needed a way to demonstrate
how to take a flat woven surface

and make a three-dimensional form.

And I found this window screening.

When I saw how two layers
make a beautiful moiré

I thought of this cyanotype process,
and experimented with that.

It's very easy.

It didn't require a darkroom.

I liked the idea that it was
more like a printmaking process;

but, it happened to be
a photographic recording.

I just knew that there was something special
about these works.

I just put them away for a while.

I didn't want them out in the world without
some sort of recognition as a body of work.

I still have an affinity for materials.

I still respond to the transparencies
and textures of different surfaces.

At that point in time, I really had a freedom.

I didn't know anything about photography.

Now I think I know too much about photography.

It was a more experimental time,
in a different way.