z o
o
m
R a d a r
M aggie Casey
A s a fibers major at the U niver-
sity o f the A rts in Philadelphia,
M aggie C asey liked to hang out
in a mostly abandoned campus
building that had a fire stairwell.
T h e soaring, echoing space in-
trigued her so much that she
built her first installation there—
an elaborate contrivance o f hun-
dreds o f strings that lay slack
w hen the landing doors w ere
closed, but sprang into a four-
story tensile helix when a door
was opened.
“ It w as exciting,” she re-
calls, “ the most response to
a space I’ve had, just reacting
to w hat w as in that space.”
It was also the start o f a defining
direction for Casey, now 2<
5
,
w ho has taken the concept o f
string in space to poetic heights.
“ I just love string,” she says.
“ I guess it’s the line and pat-
tern, and the w ay it m oves, the
stretching and tension.” H er
sculptures, made mainly o f
string (som etim es w ith w ood
or metal supports and w hatever
found objects serve her pur-
pose), are best described
as architectural/m athematical
constructions, or 3-D draw -
ings. T h ey range from room
028 americancraft feb/maro9
