Cool and collected
For this year’s Masterpiece art and design fair, London-based studio Based Upon creates a balm for the senses
Read moreMasterpiece veterans will understand the value of a quiet moment to oneself. Based Upon’s immersive installation, Breath, offers this understated, much-valued luxury. Comprising a series of works intertwining around a hooded seated figure, the stand aims to offer a place in which we can ‘go inside ourselves, exploring what really drives and distracts us’, explains Based Upon co-founder Ian Abell. Throughout the duration of the fair, members of the studio will take readings from the figure’s meditative state, which will subsequently drive oscillations on the wall-based light-works. The studio states: ‘It’s intended as a sanctuary within the fair, suggesting the ultimate luxury is stillness, when the mind stops and we can rest in the silence’.
This teaser journeys back to the installation’s beginnings, to the remote Irish island of Inis Oirr, the smallest and most eastern of the three Aran Islands in Galway Bay. Ian and his twin brother Richard discovered the land-spit when Richard visited neighbouring island Inis Meain, where he ‘felt the landscape breathe’. The installation, with its heavy, fragmented stone works, will reflect Inis Oirr’s limescale-heavy topography. It will also include physical remnants of it. The display features ‘casts from the landscape, along with 3D data scans’, explains Ian. ‘We worked from the traces we collected to create the works, while maintaining the pace and rhythm of the island.’
Masterpiece London runs from 29 June – 5 July. For more information, visit the website
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