Canadian artist Chloe Wise presents Extrasensory at Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger, a multi-layered exhibition exploring the convergence of UFO encounters, religious mysticism, and contemporary desire for spiritual meaning. The show opens through a meticulously constructed gift shop featuring pseudo-spiritual merchandise—salt lamps, prayer candles depicting aliens, discount DVDs, and esoteric objects—all handcrafted by Wise’s team with hyperrealistic deterioration. The installation interrogates how humans reframe inexplicable phenomena through available cultural frameworks: medieval Basel’s 1566 celestial battle was interpreted as religious miracle, whereas modern technological paradigm recasts such events as alien contact. Wise argues that the experiential core remains constant across epochs; only the interpretive language shifts. The gift shop functions as an accessible entry point to deeper conceptual layers, where kitsch and commodified spirituality serve as tangible gateways into questions of reenchantment and meaning-making in post-secular, technology-saturated culture.
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