Basel 2008: Timo Nasseri’s Muqarnas II

An Islamic and Persian architectural element, the muqarnas is an ornamental corbel constructed from stone, stucco, mirrored glass, wood, or even painted onto a wall to mimic stacked tiers of pointed niches cascading from a vaulted dome. At this year’s Art Basel fair in Switzerland, German-born, Iranian-descended, 34-year-old artist Timo Nasseri turned his attention from fighter jets and nuclear weaponry with his hypnotically reflective Muqarnas II (2008). The polished, stainless-steel piece, composed of 500 mirrored facets, was embedded deep in one wall of the Liste 2008 satellite venue, an old factory building rehabilitated for the four-day event by galleries representing young and emerging artists. Shown by Paris’ Schleicher + Lange gallery, Nasseri’s piece bottle-necked traffic more effectively than Brad Pitt would do later in the day as he purchased pieces by Max Lamb and Atelier van Lieshout at the nearby Design Miami/Basel event. www.schleicherlange.com