COMMENTS
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Congratulations, Aleksandra, the website looks great! When you asked me to look at your manuscript “The Mind Gazing at Itself” in 2014, I was delighted to work with someone engrossed in the interplay of mind, emotions, and body who was not pushing a religious, philosophical, or psychological agenda. As we worked, I noticed how throughout your life, you’d been making sense of your experiences: a privileged youngster, growing up in a culturally and intellectually engaged family in Lithuania, the ensuing Soviet and German occupations, then two years of exile in Germany before you and your young family immigrated to the U.S., where you excelled as a professional artist. When we met, you had already had a long life but were still actively articulating your experiences, particularly the sensations that drive most of us through life, which so many people overlook. In your vision, however, there was less drama than usual, as instead of taking things personally, you describe sensations as mere energy events doing their job. What “The Mind Gazing at Itself” offers to a reader is not personal reminiscences but rather an invitation to explore the present moment from a highly unconventional perspective. That perspective makes good sense to me, more than most of what I read these days. It may not be an easy read, but it is a fascinating one. This book is timely. Wilfrid R. Koponen, Ph.D. writer, editor, teacher ✪
Dear Ms. Kasuba, It is a profound pleasure to discover this website and see the images from the recreation of your 1975 Spectrum work in Vilnius. I have been seeking ways to maximize spatial impact with the minimum materials, so being able to see the patterns, details and construction photos of your work is especially valuable. I am very pleased and impressed to see how you were able to move so fluidly from brick to textiles to architectural shell structures. I took a great delight in realizing that you are a woman artist and accomplished much of your work when there were many societal barriers to professional success. I am glad that you have been able to carry on your creative practice for so long and I look forward to introducing your work to my students and colleagues. Best regards, Nancy Cheng, Department of Architecture, University of Oregon ✪
Congratulations on the publication of your beautiful new website documenting the evolution of your work in an elegant and clear format. It gives me the opportunity to see how each subsequent series of works grew out of a ceaseless exploration and innovation. Including the book, “The Mind Gazing at Itself” and the video “Reinventing the Self” an added insight into the experiential basis from which you created your work. Judith S Miller artist ✪
I have always been interested in the subject albeit in an exclusively artistic way—driven to manifest a sensation—never as directly as in “The Mind Gazing at Itself” or with such scientific zeal. Anonymous artist ✪
I helped Aleksandra Kasuba edit evolving drafts of “The Mind Gazing at Itself” (then tentatively titled The Physics of Metaphysics) for ten years, starting in 1980, when I was 24. I am now 60, and the work still holds the same resonance. The ideas we worked on opened up for me a completely new perspective on being, one both intellectually satisfying and personally helpful. Aleksandra uncovered patterns and drew conclusions that I would later come across in the latest scientific research. For example, the concept of “mirror neurons” was introduced to the scientific community in the early 1990s, but I had edited Aleksandra's description of such a phenomenon back in 1980. I follow neuroscience to this day and have seen nothing that contradicts the system that Aleksandra was working out for herself in the middle of the last century. Of course her vocabulary is her own. In 1998 The Journal of Mind and Behavior published an article on her work the description accompanying that article describes her work most clearly for me:
What was personally helpful about her work was that it enabled me to sidestep psychology and see my life in terms of how my own being moved in response to outer and inner stimuli. Her perspective on multiple self-images was also freeing. Most important, working on the material gave me a way to step back and view my own very turbulent inner (and outer) life and stop judging myself and others so harshly. I feel lucky in having had the chance to work with this original artist and thinker, but I am especially grateful for the fascinating lens on being that this unique work afforded me.
Andree Pages Writer, Editor of academic papers in English and French ✪
The temporary environmental indoor and outdoor work that Aleksandra Kasuba has been making since the 1960s is ahead of its time; of its time and sorely underknown. Her stretched fabrics create architectural spaces of mystery and spirit. That such substantial performative experiences can be created from such simple materials, puts the large steel work of Richard Serra into an entirely different context. And these works are only a subset of a wide range that has included livable architectural spaces, permanent public sculpture and more. Kasuba’s aesthetic has been guided by her ongoing interest and studies in spirituality, and natural and mental forms. She has taken decades of study and turned it into her book, “The Mind Gazing at Itself”. Anyone who is interested in the books by Wassily Kandinsky will see here another kindred explorer. 5/30/2017 Dennis Summers |