Ivana Bašić

Ivana Bašić's lung-like sculptures are made of blown glass, a material that speaks to the breath that formed it, and stainless steel, pointing to the inevitability and violence behind the forces of life and death, forces that act upon the body. They often incorporate intangible materials like pressure, sigh, weight, and torque, which are contained within matter and guide the formation of the artist’s pieces. “How lovely and how doomed this connection of everyone with lungs”, writes poet Juliana Spahr.

Bašić's series reimagines the chrysalis —both insect pupa and transitional state— as a site of radical shift, where the boundaries of the human self are dissolved. By invoking the insectile, an often overlooked, alien form of life, her sculptures challenge the stability of human-centered narratives. Standing in opposition to patriarchal society and the policing of nonbinary bodies, they present bodies as perpetually in flux, unbound by societal or biological constructs. She explains: “Capitalism increasingly turns physical matter into pneuma (breath, spirit) and new technology allows contemporary humanity to constantly traverse screens, making it possible to exit bodily boundaries.” Metamorphosis and fluidity are conceived as potentials for liberation, which she calls possibilities of “flight”. Referring to the philosophy of French writer Catherine Malabou, she calls upon an identity that flees itself as a way to free itself.