For Basel Social Club 2024, Mariposa will present two outdoor installations by American artist Chelsea Culprit.

Stargazing Sunflower, a neon sculpture, depicts a lone sunflower botanoid bowing back to look skyward, with bright yellow petals and a lime green high heel stem. The figure feels equal parts plant and human, drawing parallels between the postures of plants in photosynthesis and the human proclivity of looking to the stars for guidance. The work draws from the imagery of her concurrent exhibition, PSYCHOPOMP, at Mariposa, Paris.

Culprit will also present a group of tapestries made from studio drop cloths. Visitors to Basel Social Club are invited to take one upon entry to the fair to use and enjoy in specific areas of the exhibition grounds. Created in the artist’s studio in the Catskill Mountains of New York and assembled during a residency in Naples, Italy, the quilts are composed of materials that each correspond to various aspects of artist’s practice– studio drop cloths, strips of painted canvas, upcycled fabrics from thrift store piles, and italian domestic fabrics– sewn together to create spontaneous works of abstract geometries and psychedelic patterns. The tapestries evoke the long history of fiber-based craft traditions in her community and in her own family ancestry. In these works, Culprit brings together disparate materials that create odd pairings, evoking the power-clash avalanche of contemporary media. The works speak to the overlapping storylines of women’s labor and artistry in Appalachia and rural America, invoking the anonymous hands of the makers who established these traditions as well as its post-war mechanization. Intended to be used as blankets or ground coverings, the works hold the notion of assembly both in their compositions and in their functionality– as sites for communion, conversation, and repose.