Aleksandra Kasuba is the artist shown at Tate St Ives 2 May - 4 October.
The show is called ‘Shelters for the senses’ and introduced me to this Lithuanian/American artist, born 1923 and died 2019, four days after her gift of her seventy years creative work arrived to be displayed in the Lithuanian National Museum of Art.
Tate provide a timeline at the start of the exhibition with details of Aleksandra Kasuba’s life.
She was a princess but the Soviet occupation nationalised the family estate, she then became a refugee from Nazi invasion and from a Munich refugee camp in 1947 went to USA, and ended her life in New Mexico.
We see a couple of early examples of Kasuba’s art before the star of the show, the glowing rainbow curved structures which you can walk through. If you arrive at 2.30 you can choose two scents on sticks to enhance the experience.
There follows pictures of this artist’s curved dwelling in New Mexico, which was made as a place artists could stay in for contemplation in the desert surroundings, but from my research is not available for residency applications.
There is also a soft carpeted structure designed for rest, which you cannot enter, and photographs of a textured outside wall at the New York Twin Towers, which along with the Towers was destroyed by the infamous attack.
I found it a refreshing show, giving me knowledge of an artist new to me, one with many interests, in materials and structures, whose art was all about restorative enjoyment.
The exhibition raised questions about how artists become known internationally, how Tate obtains their shows, and how very many interesting artists there may be as yet uncelebrated and unknown.
Aleksandra Kasuba as a Lithuanian refugee was made welcome in USA
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