Installations & Paintings take over Art Basel Unlimited 2023
The 2023 edition of Art Basel presents a diverse range of sectors, each with its own distinct focus, featuring works by both established and emerging artists. Among these sectors, such as Parcours, Feature, and Kabinett, there is one that always manages to capture our attention: Unlimited. Dedicated to projects that transcend the classical art fair stand, the pioneering exhibition platform at Hall 1 includes large-scale sculptures and paintings, video projections, installations, and live performances. Curated by Giovanni Carmine (read our recent interview here), the exhibition unfolds inside the 16,000-square-meter hall with 76 projects that, for the most part, are being shown for the first time at Art Basel.
As part of our visit to the 2023 art fair, we spotlight below some of the large-scale projects that caught our attention at Unlimited. From Serge Attukwei Clottey’s huge plastic gallon tapestry to Monica Bonvicini’s leather and steel swing installation, explore all the projects below.
Serge Attukwei Clottey’s installation Sea Never Dries (2022) pays tribute to the yellow containers commonly found in Ghana by transforming them into large-scale tapestries. These vibrant artworks, reminiscent of Gustav Klimt’s gold leaf dresses and Byzantine mosaics, hang from the ceiling, creating flowing waves that cascade onto the floor. Initially designed for storing cooking oil, the yellow vessels now serve locals for water and fuel collection, reflecting the water shortage crisis. With the support of his community, Clottey cuts these containers into small pieces and binds them together using wire, resulting in flowing tapestries that he calls ‘Afrogallonism’. See our coverage of the artist’s work at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale here.
Mai-Thu Perret’s installation, titled Untitled (2021/2023), features 29 yellow neon palms arranged in a pattern along a 15-meter wall. This abstract composition, incorporating both vertical and horizontal orientations, is a product of the artist’s extensive research in cultural history, literary works, and feminist narratives. The hands, serving as a symbol for labor and art-making, draw connections to their presence in ancient cave paintings, particularly those of women. Often juxtaposed with depictions of animals or hunting scenes, these handprints or outlines reflect a complex relationship between protection and freedom. Perret’s installation further explores this dynamic through the reference to Franz Kafka’s aphorism, ‘I am a cage in search of a bird,’ employing the imagery of immobilized hands.
Cornelia Parker’s artwork, PsychoBarn (Cut Up) (2023), is a reinterpretation of her earlier work called Transitional Object (PsychoBarn) commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum in 2016. The original work was a replica of the iconic mansion from Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho, constructed using parts of a typical American red barn. In the new installation, Parker deconstructs the building to create an exploded view. The various elements, such as windows, doors, panels, and the metal roof, have been weathered by time spent on both sides of the Atlantic. The panels are arranged in a salon hang-style, appearing to float over three walls, and some are even placed on the floor. Using the Dadaist cut-up technique, Parker rearranges the shingled roof, windows, porch, and stairs to form a new composition, turning the barn inside out in a creative manner.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
