Amidst the endless stream of canapés, champagne and baguettes-on-the-go, it can be a little difficult to hit your 5-a-day quota at Art Basel. Good thing the artists are doing it for us then, providing some oddly anthropomorphous vegetables to view (strictly no nibbling).
We picked up on this healthy trend at Zero’s very wonderful booth. The Milan gallery are showing João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva’s disheartened radish, its leaves flopped over in utter exhaustion. Fair fatigue hits even the freshest of us; we hear you radish, we hear you.
There’s a slightly more spritely orange hanging out in Galeria Fortes Vilaça’s space also courtesy of João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva. Orange Head looks like he’s having the time of his life sat atop his white plinth, two big tomato eyes boggling out at passers by, their ‘pupils’ darting off in different directions. We fear Mr Orange hasn’t been to bed at all. Cabbage Head sits to his right, a droopy moustache suggesting he’s more of the silent brooding type than his hyped-up companion.
Over at Esther Schipper we enjoyed a sweet potato from Karin Sander (currently sharing her ’10 Ideas’ in Issue 27 of Elephant), The Sweet Potato resembling less a person than a tiny universe, its green sprouting top appearing as a scaled-down forest.
Green fingers can also be spotted at Giò Marconi, where a large installation of bright flowers from Nathalie and Hans Djurberg fills the booth.
Art Basel runs until 19 June at Messe Basel
