Kaari Upson

Go Back the Way You Came

Kaari Upson, installation view, Go Back the Way You Came, Kunsthalle Basel, 2019, view on Mother’s Legs, 2018 – 2019. Photo: Philipp Hänger / Kunsthalle Basel

 

Kaari Upson, installation view, Go Back the Way You Came, Kunsthalle Basel, 2019, view on Mother’s Legs, 2018 – 2019. Photo: Philipp Hänger / Kunsthalle Basel

 

Kaari Upson, installation view, Go Back the Way You Came, Kunsthalle Basel, 2019, view on Mother’s Legs, 2018 – 2019. Photo: Philipp Hänger / Kunsthalle Basel

 

Kaari Upson, installation view, Go Back the Way You Came, Kunsthalle Basel, 2019, view on Mother’s Legs, 2018 – 2019 (detail). Photo: Philipp Hänger / Kunsthalle Basel

 

Kaari Upson, installation view, Go Back the Way You Came, Kunsthalle Basel, 2019, view on O. Snag, 2018 – 2019. Photo: Philipp Hänger / Kunsthalle Basel

 

Kaari Upson, installation view, Go Back the Way You Came, Kunsthalle Basel, 2019, view on O. Snag, 2018 – 2019 (detail). Photo: Philipp Hänger / Kunsthalle Basel

 

Kaari Upson, installation view, Go Back the Way You Came, Kunsthalle Basel, 2019, f.l.t.r. view on Urmutter, 2018 – 2019, and Nightsplitter, 2019. Photo: Philipp Hänger / Kunsthalle Basel

 

Kaari Upson, installation view, Go Back the Way You Came, Kunsthalle Basel, 2019. Photo: Philipp Hänger / Kunsthalle Basel

Kaari Upson, installation view, Go Back the Way You Came, Kunsthalle Basel, 2019, f.l.t.r. view on Prairie Fundamentalism, 2019, and A Place For a Snake, 2019. Photo: Philipp Hänger / Kunsthalle Basel

 

Kaari Upson, installation view, Go Back the Way You Came, Kunsthalle Basel, 2019, f.l.t.r. view on Strump, 2017 – 2019; Center, 2017 – 2019; Police, 2019.  Photo: Philipp Hänger / Kunsthalle Basel

Kaari Upson, installation view, Go Back the Way You Came, Kunsthalle Basel, 2019, view on Him, 2017 – 2019. Photo: Philipp Hänger / Kunsthalle Basel

Kaari Upson, installation view, Go Back the Way You Came, Kunsthalle Basel, 2019. Photo: Philipp Hänger / Kunsthalle Basel

Kaari Upson, poster for the exhibition, Go Back the Way You Came, Kunsthalle Basel, 2019. Design: Filip Despotovic and Sandra Pfeiffer

Exhibition text and related events (PDF)
➔ Press images (ZIP)

For her first institutional solo exhibition in Europe, Kaari Upson (*1972) presents a new body of wood and latex sculptures that continues her ongoing exploration of both the figure of the mother and the uncanny double. The US-American artist casts, cuts down, or replicates natural and architectural elements that she grew up with, fusing home and mother, body and object, desire and trauma. The gripping result interrogates family, consumer culture, and “Americanness,” all while literally eviscerating parts of her childhood environment to do so.

Press clippings:
Wenn wir die Schauplätze unserer Kindheit aufsuchen, wird das oft zu einer unseligen Wiederkehr, zeigt die Künstlerin Kaari Upson in der Kunsthalle Basel, NZZ am Sonntag (10/2019)
Kaari Upson – so sinnlich, so exorzistisch!, Radio X (09/2019)
Unheimliches Versteckspiel mit dem Ich, Basellandschaftliche Zeitung (09/2019)
Kaari Upson, Artforum (09/2019)
A white picket fence, open floor plan, traumatic imprinting, Flaunt (05/2019)
Kaari Upson: Go Back The Way You Came und Door, Open, Shut, Kunstforum International (11/2019)