Art Unlimited is not just for big things but also for small ones, long video works and feats of organization. And now for performances too! There was Laura Lima’s “Ascenseur” (2013), with a hand throwing out keys on a ring and Davide Balula’s “Mimed Sculptures” (2016), including Henry Moore’s “Reclining Figure: Hand” (1979), Alberto Giacometti’s “Le Nez” (1947), and Louise Bourgeois “Unconscious Landscape” (1967-68). What caught my attention, though, was Samson Young’s birdsong canon (see below).
Interestingly, China seemed more present in Art Unlimited than in Art Basel itself. Ding Yi presented a vast painting, a summation of his practice as an abstractionist who builds maps of Shanghai, consciousness and language based on the cross-markings (x and +). This was presented by ShanghART and young Brussels gallery Waldburger Wouters. Also present was Cheng Ran’s epic—literally—seven-hour film, and from Colin Siyuan Chinnery (the artist, writer, curator and musician), a new video work, “Warmth”, that invokes related sensory perceptions (sound, smell, touch). Also from Asia, Singapore’s STPI showed Ho Tzu Nyen (it seems video from East Asia travels well). While Kukje Gallery brought Haegue Yang (but more of that in the Pavilions article).
Birdsong was blasted throughout the hall via a Long Range Acoustic Device, usually used to disperse protestors. The artist, Samson Young, is from Hong Kong. “Canon” 2015 (Galerie Gisela Capitain and Team (gallery, inc.)
Surveillance was a theme and a meme
YOU ARE BEING WATCHED: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Krzysztof Wodiczko “Zoom Pavilion” 2015 (Carroll / Fletcher)
William Kentridge was a delight
Bewitching – William Kentridge “Notes Towards a Model Opera” 2015 (Goodman Gallery, Marian Goodman)
And we need more time to watch Cheng Ran’s epic
7-hour dream: Cheng Ran “In Course of the Miraculous” 2015 (Galerie Urs Meile) – this work was made with the support of the K11 Foundation.
Some things were shockingly successful
We need to talk about this – Paul McCarthy’s Tomato Head (Green) (1994) in the Unlimited section of Art Basel. Image: Courtesy Hauser & Wirth – sold for USD4.75 million.
Others just beautifully balanced
Exceptional assembly: Tunga “Eu, você e a lua” (Me, you and the moon), 2014 (Luhring Augustine, Galleria Franco Noero)
Ariel Schlesinger “Two Good Reasons” 2015 (Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia)—erotic articulated sheets of paper!
Rayyane Tabet “The Dead Sea In Three Parts” 2013 (Sfeir-Semler Gallery)
Anish Kapoor “Dragon”1992 (Gladstone Gallery, Lisson Gallery)
Some things were small
Not everything in Basel is big. Steven Pippin made a machine to keep a pencil balanced on its point! “Ω = 1″ 2003-2013 (Gavin Brown’s enterprise)
Prabhavathi Meppayil “tw/one” 2016 (Esther Schipper / Johnen Galerie, Pace, GALLERYSKE)
And you had to be curious about that buzzing sound
Nina Canell “Shedding Sheaths” 2015s (Barbara Wien). Swedish Canell got her break with Dublin’s Mother’s Tankstation)
Photography was not numerous, but it was striking
Birdhead “Welcome to Birdhead World Again, Passions Bloom Ambitions from Vagina – 23″ 2016 (ShanghART)
Some things were rubbish, but well collated
Dieter Roth’s rubbish: “Flacher Abfall (Flat Waste)” 1975-76/1992 (Hauser & Wirth)
“MOU (Museum of Unbelongings)” 2016, by Indian artist, Mithu Sen, was very pretty. (Galerie Krinzinger and Galerie Nathalie Obadia)
There was video a plenty
Colin Siyuan Chinnery “Warmth” (Bernier / Eliades, Athens)
But there was also big stuff
Ding Yi “Appeaerance of Crosses 2016-B10″ 2016 (ShanghART, Shanghai, and Waldburger Wouters, Brussels)
Tony Oursler (left) “template/variant/friend/stranger” 2014 (Lisson), and Julie Mehretu (right) “Eye of Ra” 2004 (carlier gebauer)
And really to understand that properly, you now need to read about all the pavilions.
You may have heard that American-Bulgarian artist Christo has created a floating yellow path to an island in the middle lake Iseo in Italy’s Lombardy region. That means old Christo works must be dusted off and brought out. “Four Store Fronts Corner” 1964/65 (Annely Juda Fine Art, London)
