top of page
COLOUR, LIGHT & LOCATION
Dylan Bedford | RGSHW | A Level Investigation
BARBARA KASTEN
Barbara Kasten is an American contemporary artist born in 1936. Her work is primarily photographs however she does not like to be labelled as a photographer as she is not exploring any photographic process nor does her work rely on the properties of the photograph.
Kasten’s work has an aspect of surrealness as she uses light and more importantly their shadows to create and photograph scenes. Kasten has a lot of superficial similarities to my previous artists like Knapp and Stella however I am interested in the way she builds up 3D pieces while incorporating light and colour.
Barbara Kasten's architectural inspirations alongside her fascination with the behaviour of light will be great way to bring together the best of my previous artists.
I was most intrigued by her piece 'Scenario' which looks like looks almost like a simplified cityscape. The piece combines a projected photo however the board it is projected on has 3D blocks as well which adds to the illusion.
Below, you can see how, to get a feel and some experience into how she constructs her pieces, I experimented with this 'building block' style using paper. I first started with simple random forms.
Initial Response
The majority of the shapes and colours in Kasten's pieces are from a projection. To experiment with how light lays itself over 3D surfaces, I used the shadow of a piece of purple acetate to add this second 'layer' of colour.
I constructed a very simple hut inspired by Ndebele, I felt that the current cubes seemed angular and more representative of a western skyline so I introduced the simple Ndebele hut to represent this more untouched culture.
A different way Kasten uses light is through thick perspex which provides shadows and reflections. As I have been trying to get a feel for her style, I tried to incorporate some acetate pieces into the scenes I have been setting up. I did this really simply and quickly by using triangles of plastic and slotting them together. For a few scenes I took them out and used them alongside a torch to shine colour across the shapes.
I really like how the light falls over the scene, the way that only a few blocks are fully illuminated at a time is interesting. Also I am starting to notice a contrast between the tower of blocks and the hut. The tower feels more symbolic of a western skyscraper while the hut retains its simplicity.
In the two pieces above, the light distribution adds on to the distinction between the huts and the blocks. Particularly in the photo on the right, light mainly hits the hut and leaves bright white planes showing on the left which could be symbolic of the primitive cultures/tribes who separate themselves from the dynamic western world.
Additionally, below I really like the involvement of the actual acetate which adds another dimension to the piece.
Digital Backgrounds
Something I noticed from Kasten's work was these backgrounds which she projects behind the the perspex pieces, the angularity of the shapes reminds me of Stella and so I decided to respond digitally.
To make the piece more in the style of Stella, I simplified the shapes and made it block colours.
In the same way Kasten's perspex pieces have a subject and a background, I added my background to the pieces I had previously made. I want to work on this idea by introducing what I have learnt from Ndebele into the models and backgrounds.
Compositional Experiments
Compositional experiments
Something I noticed from my initial models was the was the way that the blocks and huts seemed symbolic of Ndebele vs western norms, within South Africa, and the way that they separate themselves from that way of life.
The divide in the country is something that is a big part of South Africa and so I want to look more at this idea and what role it could play in my final piece.
To experiment with the idea of this divide, physically, I conducted another round of photos, this time with more huts and blocks. This time round I tried to accentuate the separation.
For most of these experiments, I kept the huts and the angular blocks quite separate, however I did also try more integrated scenes. Additionally I experimented with a few close-ups to highlight the difference in angles of the hut compared to the vertical and horizontal lines of the blocks.
Adding Colour
Adding colour
After my compositional experiments, I wanted to reintroduce the coloured light and this time use it to emphasise further the separation between the huts and the 'modern buildings'.
The way that the light strikes these pieces is symbolic of the distribution of ideologies in South Africa, many parts, like Cape Town are more built up and have a greater interconnectedness with the world whereas the Ndebele people, to the most part, separate themselves and remain in their tribes. However, the non-discrete distribution of light in these experiments means that often the huts are illuminated with colour. This represents the way many of the people in the tribe will still adopt modern technologies like phones etc.
After experimenting with various compositions, I tried a different method of illuminating the hut, I put the light source inside and the translucency of the paper meant it had a really nice glowing effect.
waterfront Drawing
Waterfront Drawing
I wanted to focus on the modern side of South Africa and so conducted a pencil drawing of the Victoria Wharf waterfront mall. This area has a lot of business, wealth and tourism and unlike the Ndebele people, receives greater influence on market/fashion trends from the rest of the world.
Using paper, I materialised my drawing into a 3D building to use in my scene. It now has depth and can introduce a new set of shadows. This piece belongs in the 'modern side' of my piece as it represents a central hub for tourist and local shoppers, the polar opposite to the secluded Ndebele people.
Here I reintroduced the colours to see how they would work against the grey pencil lines of the drawing, also to see how the full shape of the building interacts with shadows.
Here I created a very rough stop-motion video to experiment with having a changing colour palette and light source, like I have done in my previous work. This creates a sense of movement in the one side which is something I really the idea of.
bottom of page