Art Basel: Pioneers

Negative flare space consists of colourful panes of hand-blown glass from which circular cutouts have been removed. A large reflective circle has been added to one of the front-most panes, while a smaller mirror circle can be discerned within the layers. The various panes of glass lean on one another and create a variety of hues where they overlap, allowing other tones to shine through the cutouts.

Rudimentary optical devices made from three or more mirrors have been an important line of inquiry for Eliasson for the last twenty years. Referred to by the artist as ‘kaleidoscopes’, these devices create the illusion of a three-dimensional form at the end of their open shafts, depending on the number and angle of the mirrors used. The kaleidoscopes also incorporate the surroundings and the visitors into the mirrored interiors. In Domestic eye device, the interior is lined with colored reflective glass. Fragmented reflections of the viewing and their surroundings mingle within the kaleidoscope, continually shifting in response to the viewer's movements and changing perspectives. 

Sleep Close and Fast is a seven channel sound installation featuring recordings of lullabies sung in the artist’s own voice. Culled from a variety of sources including cult horror films, opera and literature, the lullabies chosen all share evocative and haunting undertones. Emanating from stainless steel barrels, the sculptural acoustics suggest deep space, distance and memory. The voice recordings are accompanied by percussion set to the rhythm of the artist’s heartbeat, acting as a metronome for the lullaby. 

The songs reference the original scores from Roman Polanski's Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Dario Argento's Profondo Rosso (1975) and Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man (1973). The lyric “sleep close and fast” is from the latter film, which portrays a policeman who is called to a remote Scottish island to investigate the disappearance of a missing child. The case turns out to be a ruse, and the officer is captured and prepared for sacrifice to ensure a fruitful harvest. At the end of the film, actors Brit Ekland and Diane Cilento sing a gentle lullaby. Intertwining sleep with death, these seemingly soothing songs often have provocative, dual meanings. This aspect of the hidden truth is formally paralleled by Philipsz’s own voice contained and concealed within the barrels.

In Together V, the deeply resonant sound of Philipsz’s breath emanates from four organ pipes. The pipes on view are reconstructions made from a historical organ that had fallen into disuse. After producing the recordings of her breath moving through the metal forms, Philipsz projected the sound from a small speaker placed inside each pipe. The noises from the three pipes overlap and diverge, resembling a call-and-response dialogue.

Embodying one of the core concepts in Saraceno's work, this sculpture presents models of life floating in space and suggests an architectural vision of the future. The complex geometric shape of the iridescent plexiglass modules are derived from the artist's continued experimentation with a structure termed the "Weaire-Phelan model," which describes an idealized mathematical geometry of foam. The work’s mesmerizing visual quality results from each plexiglass panel’s shimmering, shifting hues as the viewer’s perspective changes. Furthermore, the overall palette transforms completely depending on whether the work is placed against a white or dark background. Suspended from the ceiling as if a luminous cloud or a collection of beautiful bubbles, this work further explores notions of an airborne existence underlying much of Saraceno's creative practice.

Saraceno’s multidisciplinary artistic practice takes inspiration from a variety of sources ranging from architecture and space exploration to science fiction and geometries found in the biological sciences. Among these subjects, Saraceno has long included arachnology as a tool for the investigation of alternative constructions, forming the basis for recent exhibitions such as Cosmic Jive: Tomás Saraceno at Museo di Arte Contemporanea di Villa Croce (2014), 14 Billions (Working Title) at the Bonniers Konsthall in Stockholm (2010), and the artist’s 2009 presentation at the Venice Biennial Galaxy Forming along Filaments, like Droplets along the Strands of a Spider’s Web. For Saraceno, spider webs spark inquiry into possible modes to redefine relationships between humans and nature, proposing utopian conditions for sustainable societies. Formed of complex interwoven geometries suspended in air, each piece appears as a unique galaxy floating within an expansive, infinite landscape. The works’ titles reveal the technical basis for each sculptural element, like the genus and species of the spider collaborators and the amount of time needed to construct their webs. During the building period of each sculpture, each cube is turned onto its various sides, dislodging gravity and interweaving concepts of freedom and control within the work. This action is reminiscent of inverting an hour glass, like the object-cum-constellation “horologium” referred to in the title Hybrid semi-social Instrument HIP 31681 built by: a triplet of Cyrtophora citricola - two weeks, rotated 180°. And yet, the objects themselves defy the framework of their titles, as the intricate web formations in each crystalline cube are clearly not of human logic nor would they exist in nature.

Familiar objects such a tape measure and toothpicks come together in a delicate balance in Sarah Sze’s new sculpture, Three Foot Drop which occupies the space between two and three dimensionality. Combining digital print outs and strips of paint as sculptural material, Sze continues her investigations of sculpture and installation, while pushing the boundaries of these mediums beyond our expectations.

Things Caused to Happen (Palette) is representative of Sarah Sze’s meticulously arranged and intricately balanced sculptural objects. In these often whimsical and mysterious object-compositions, Sze makes use of everyday functional tools and found elements—in the case of this work, a used palette, archival prints, toothpicks —to create re-appropriated settings that challenge the viewer’s preconception of the familiar and mundane. Held up by an amphitheater of sticks, miniature images encircle the nucleus of the work, recalling subatomic particles evolving within a quantum field or the surface of the earth’s crust. A projection is cast onto each image, creating a constellation of moving images.