Kaari Upson - Mattresses (2013-2014)
Kaari Upson
Rubells (2014)
silicone, spandex and fiberglass
203 x 193 × 27.9 cm
Rubell Museum, Miami
“Oh geez… Someone’s spray painted some dirty old mattresses. I wonder what these are selling for?”
That was the dismissive thought in my head as soon as I approached the Overduin & Co. booth at Frieze London in 2013, but first impressions can be overcome. There was just something about those mattresses that caused them to be stuck in my head ever since. Maybe it’s because they weren’t actually mattresses.
They’re silicone, moulded from actual mattresses then finished with pigment to look just like the real-life discarded ones that Kaari Upson picked off the street. That blew my mind. Instead of passing quickly I ended up spending most of my time trying to find proof they were real. I was convinced that they were, because dirty old mattresses are an odd choice for a replica work of art.
Upson has referred to them as “artifacts of disease”, an appropriate phrase for an everyday household item that’s often yellowed with sweat stains and other bodily fluids that have coalesced to look like the fading evening light in a Turner watercolour. Frequently rife with dead skin and, god-forbid, bed bugs, if you take the time to really think about it you’ll probably conclude mattresses are disgusting. Discarded ones even more so. Think about that when you consider that Upson sourced almost all of hers off the street.
I’m fascinated by the disparity that presents. The idea of hanging someone else’s used, mangy mattress on your wall. It’s incredibly punk. It’s an f-you to taste and elitist art even if the five-figure prices they sold for — and they were all sold out when I saw them! — puts them squarely in that category. There’s something incredibly subversive about glorifying disgusting things, except disgust wasn’t Upson’s intent.
The mattresses represent a major inflection point in her career and were the first major works she made after two key life events. The first was wrapping up the Larry Project — a seven year fascination she had with the fictional ‘Larry’, a man who’s story, life and image she created based on items found in an abandoned property. The second was being diagnosed with breast cancer. The quick succession of these events led to incredibly introspective works.
Interviews with Upson from that period in her life indicate she was furiously addressing the idea of memory while facing her own mortality, referring to one of the mattresses as “another abandoned object that carried with it the people and events that had passed across and through it”. Yet most of her mattresses leave you guessing at the provenance because she found them on the street. Who slept on it? Did they sleep soundly, feeling safe and cosy? Maybe it belonged to a couple that had slowly become estranged, leaving a lonely space in the middle where their bodies rarely ventured. Hung sagging on a wall, you’re left to guess.
Which makes the one in the Rubell Family Collection slightly less compelling. It was a commission. Everyone who sees it knows exactly who slept on it. Well, two people at least. But whether or not you know, seeing these mattresses might trigger your own memories of places you’ve slept, or people you’ve slept with. Maybe that’s why these have stuck in my head, and why I so desperately want one on my wall. The discrepancy of turning something grungy and destined for the rubbish heap into a thing of… is beauty even the right word? I would argue it is, in the context of describing the power an extremely realistic silicone reproduction can have to trigger my emotions.
Aside from the mattresses, I didn’t know much about Kaari Upson or her art until my research for this writeup. Her rise to prominence happened mostly in the US and aligns with my time in the UK, where she wasn’t much shown. It’s likely that will continue to be the case. Sadly, Kaari Upson died of metastatic breast cancer in 2021 at the age of 51.
That’s why I like it…
Her art will live on in my memory.
Additional reading:
Interview by Even magazine (interview date not noted)
Interview by Flash Art (2014)
One final note: unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures at Frieze 2013 but you can see images of the mattresses that I saw in this article.
Previously, on Why I Like It:
Jan — The Cornershop (2014), Lucy Sparrow
Dec — Seurat & Pointillism
Nov — Lay Down Dream (2007), Jessica Anne Schwartz