Raphael Hefti: Salutary Failures

On view at Kunsthalle Basel is “Salutary Failures,’’ an exhibition presenting 5 new bodies of work by Raphael Hefti. Throughout his artistic practice, Hefti has been searching for the sublime in ordinary phenomena, both natural and industrial, and is interested in pushing materials and techniques to their limits, and even beyond. Among the works in the exhibition, viewers will find more than 27 tons of black sand pressed into an array of monoliths, 15 four-meters-long glass vitals enclosing various noble gases and a dozen abstract ‘paintings’ created through several acid and pigment baths. Altogether, the works in the exhibition explore their numbers, whether it is the sheer scale, the weight, or the temporal measure they imply.