Ghislaine Leung's Institutional Critique at Kunsthalle Basel

For her first institutional solo show in Switzerland, Ghislaine Leung (born 1980 in Stockholm, lives in London) presents nine new works at Kunsthalle Basel, running until August 11. Known for her "scores"—instructions given to exhibition staff for collaborative installation—Leung interrogates the structures underlying art production and human relations. In the main hall, three geometric wall murals visualize contradictions: Care maps 2016 hours of labor against 1140 hours of UK childcare support; Leave marks 37 unpaid sick days and 118 days between shows. Surgery, a sealed-off space, alludes to a hysterectomy six weeks before opening, its volume 1% of the exhibition—the same proportion of her body removed. In a second room, black inflatables shaped like numbers 8 and 175 result from a calculation of fee versus time. Jobs lists Leung's life roles from babysitter to mother. Holdings displays her daughter's toy, damaged in a prior show. The only three-dimensional work, Quattro anni in dieci anni in Vent'anni, is a three-layer cake celebrating four years of motherhood, ten as an artist, and twenty with her partner.