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| Oswaldo Maciá :: Smellscape |
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| Oswaldo Maciá :: 1 Woodchurch Road, London NW6 3PL |
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| Jenny Marketou :: SMELLYOU>SMELLME |
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| Jenny Marketou :: Smell Map |
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| Chrysanne Stathacos :: Wish Machine - Love |
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| Clara Ursitti :: Untitled |
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| Clara Ursitti :: Untitled |
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The Esther M. Klein Art Gallery at the University City Science Center and the Monell Center present Odor Limits, an exhibition that explores the potential of smell in aesthetic experience.
The works in this show employ natural, synthetic and imaginary scents to delve into pressing contemporary themes about cultural difference, personal identity, spirituality, and the body.
Oswaldo Maciá
Smellscape (2006)
Plexiglas, scents, monitor, video
Courtesy of the artist
An arrangement of scents, poised at the four compass points, that would have been encountered by fictional character Phileas Fogg during his circumnavigation of the globe in Jules Verne's classic novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Depending upon the visitor's previous travels, Maciá's intriguing compositions, created in collaboration with perfumer Ricardo Moya, may trigger olfactory memories of distant cities and continents or provide surprising fragrances to identify and interpret. The artist's diagram, viewable on a monitor in the center of the installation, provides hints to the thought-provoking concoctions of scents, which range from the pleasant and voluptuous to the acrid and unsavory.
Oswaldo Maciá
1 Woodchurch Road, London NW6 3PL (1994-95)
Scents, trash cans
Courtesy of the artist
An interactive sculpture that highlights the diverse and distinctive odors of a small apartment complex in northwest London. In a kind of sociological shorthand, Maciá's olfactory clues hint at the range of personalities, generational preferences, consumer practices and domestic lifestyles that contribute to a community of mixed cultural backgrounds typical to the contemporary metropolis.
Oswaldo Maciá (London) utilizes smells, sounds and synaesthetic experiences in his installations, which have been shown at institutions worldwide, including the Whitechapel Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, and biennials in Havana, Liverpool, Moscow, Shanghai, Tirana and Venice.
Jenny Marketou
SMELLYOU>SMELLME (2003)
Single-channel video with sound (30:00)
Courtesy of the artist
This video is loosely based on the "Diary Room footage found in the reality television show, Big Brother, where contestants speak directly and candidly to the camera. Marketou's international roster of guests, however, responds to a set of questions posed by the artist relating to the sense of smell. Perfume, body odor, and olfactory memories are just a few of the topics discussed as intimate thoughts are revealed about how smell intersects with the lived aspects of experience – such as personal and cultural identity, geography and community, individual likes and dislikes, and the nature of smell in general.
Jenny Marketou
Smell It: A Do-It-Yourself Smell Map (2008)
Site-specific, interactive wall installation, SAV (wallpaper)
on Sintra Mount
Courtesy of the artist
Smell It: A Do-It-Yourself Smell Map is an interactive visitor project created specifically for this exhibition. Visitors will be given a street map and then invited to walk around the neighborhood to record their olfactory experiences. Back in the gallery, viewers can add their odorous encounters to a wall-sized, collectively-drawn map to show the diversity of subjective responses to smell and the shifting of the neighborhood's smellscape from one day to the next.
While smells are expected in the context of nature or in rural areas, to discover the olfactory in the midst of the concrete jungle is both a challenge and a thrill.
Jenny Marketou (Athens/New York) has worked in photography, video, public interventions, and networking technologies.
Her works feature social processes that invite participation and have been exhibited at the Anita Beckers Gallery (Frankfurt),
the Centre Pompidou, ZKM, the New Museum, Manifesta and the
São Paulo Biennial.
Chrysanne Stathacos
Wish Machine (1997-2008)
Digital photograph, customized vending machine, scent multiples Courtesy of the artist
A customized vending machine accompanied by the images of a divine, wish-fulfilling tree from India. The machine dispenses a "wish" or olfactory artwork that is composed of a printed photocollage depicting an herb or flower, along with a vial of the plant's essential oil. Each multisensory wish stimulates the sense of smell, inspires reflection on basic human desires such as love and health, and seemingly offers the possibility of transformation. Originally commissioned as public artwork for Grand Central Station, over 20,000 people have engaged with Wish Machine and its unconventional blending of materialism and mysticism.
Chrysanne Stathacos (Toronto/New York) is a multi-media artist whose site-specific installations and interactive public art works have been presented at museums, galleries and public spaces internationally, such as P.S. 122, Ludwig Forum Museum, Nature Morte New Delhi, The Power Plant and Grand Central Station, Creative Time.
Clara Ursitti
Untitled (1995)
Single-channel video documentation of performance
with the Strathclyde Police Department (3:30)
Courtesy of the artist
Portrays an inter-species performance in which the artist has herself tracked down by a specially-trained police bloodhound. The event vividly illustrates how each person exudes an individualistic aroma, as unique as a fingerprint, and unknowingly leaves an "odor trace" of his or her travel and whereabouts. Radiating a playful innocence, the activity also evokes the tabloid sensibilities of detective dramas as the dog sniffs its way through fields, bushes and trees in search of the artist.
Clara Ursitti
Untitled (1995)
Single-channel video with Dr. George Dodd (11:00)
Courtesy of the artist
Collaborating with Dr. George Dodd, a renowned scientist, perfumer and aromatherapist, the artist reclines like an odalisque and makes her skin available for olfactory examination. In dispassionate, precise language, Dr. Dodd identifies the odoriferous parts of the human body and the chemical compounds typically found in what he calls a person's "olfactory atmosphere. His conversation brings out fascinating connections between human odors and those found in animals, plants, gourmet foods and expensive perfumes. While body odor may be overdetermined by the hygiene anxiety induced by deodorant and soap advertisements, Ursitti's video erases some of the stigma heaped upon natural bodily emanations and contextualizes them within the broader continuum of olfactory phenomena.
Clara Ursitti (Glasgow) has created pungent installations for over a decade. Exhibiting throughout Europe and in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.S., her work has appeared at the ICA in London and biennials in Venice and Gothenburg. She recently received a Helen Chadwick Fellowship and an IASPIS residency.
ABOUT THE CURATORS
Jim Drobnick (Toronto) is a critic, curator and Associate Professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design. He has published over
a dozen articles on the artistic use of smell, as well as on such topics as audio art, performance and post-media practices.
His books include the anthologies Aural Cultures (2004) and
The Smell Culture Reader (2006).
Jennifer Fisher (Toronto) is a critic, curator and Assistant Professor at York University. Her research focuses on exhibition practices, performance, the visual arts, museums, collecting
and the aesthetics of the non-visual senses, especially the
sense of touch and intuition. She recently edited Technologies
of Intuition (2006).
DisplayCult is a collaborative framework for interdisciplinary studies in the visual arts founded in 1994. Its exhibitions include CounterPoses (1998), Vital Signs (2000), Museopathy (2001), reminiSCENT (2003), Linda Montano (2003), Aural Cultures (2005), Do Me! (2006) and Listening Awry (2007), among others.
EVENTS
Curators' Talk, Esther M. Klein Art Gallery, Friday May 9, 4:30 p.m.
"Lunch for Hungry Minds" Lecture: "Human Pheromones: Facts and Fantasies," by Monell scientists George Preti, PhD and Charles Wysocki, PhD, Science Center, 3701 Market Street, 3rd Floor, Monday May 12, 12 noon.
RSVP at http://www.sciencecenter.org.
SmartTalk Lecture: "The Importance of Body Odors - from Neurons to Behavior and Back" by Monell scientist Johan N. Lundström, PhD, Monell Center, 3500 Market Street, Wednesday, June 11 at 4:30pm. Reception in the Klein Gallery afterwards. RSVP to [email protected].
The human sense of smell has long been considered a residual sensory system with little to no impact on our behavior.
However, the notion of humans as "visual creatures," commonly held by scientists and laymen alike, has been negated by recent advances in olfactory research. We now know that olfactory stimuli can modulate a wide range of emotions and behaviors, including, among many others, attention, kin recognition, and even mate selection. In other words, our olfactory sense still plays an important role in everyday life.
In this talk, Dr. Lundström will review recent advances that are changing our understanding of how odors affect human behavior and how these effects manifest in the brain. Specifically, Dr. Lundström will focus on chemical signals hidden in body odors. These chemosignals, which communicate ecologically important information, such as the emotional state and genetic makeup of their human source, receive preferential processing by the human brain, much like similar visual stimuli. Our brain is so sensitive to these signals that it can detect even minute genetic differences, which in turn guide our behavior. How the brain acts as a genetic detector and the relevance of these chemosignals in everyday life will be discussed.
Lecture: "Art and the Olfactory Imagination," by Avery Gilbert, author of the upcoming book, "What the Nose Knows: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life," Penn Bookstore,
3601 Walnut Street, Wednesday June 25, 7 p.m.
The Odor Limits cell phone tour allows you to hear the curators and participating artists discuss the exhibition and the artworks, as well as listen to scientific commentary from several Monell olfactory scientists.
Access the tour by calling 215.764.5308 and entering a stop number below:
| PRESS 10: |
CURATORS JIM DROBNICK AND JENNIFER FISHER ON ODOR LIMITS |
| PRESS 11: |
ARTIST CLARA URSITTI DISCUSSES HER VIDEOS |
| PRESS 12: |
MESSAGE FROM SMELL IT SYSTEMS ON HOW TO USE THE DO-IT-YOURSELF SMELL MAP |
| PRESS 13: |
CHRYSANNE STATHACOS READS WISHES RECEIVED FROM PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD FOR THE WISH MACHINE |
| PRESS 14: |
THE SCIENCE OF SMELL: DR. GARY BEAUCHAMP ON HOW INDIVIDUAL IDENTITY IS TRANSMITTED THROUGH ODOR |
| PRESS 15: |
THE SCIENCE OF SMELL: DR. CHARLES WYSOCKI ON THINGS YOU CANNOT SMELL (BUT YOUR NEIGHBOR CAN) |
| PRESS 16: |
THE SCIENCE OF SMELL: DR. PAMELA DALTON ON HOW YOUR EXPECTATIONS CAN INFLUENCE WHAT YOU SMELL |
| PRESS 17: |
THE SCIENCE OF SMELL: DR. JOHAN LUNDSTRÖM ON HOW GENDER INFLUENCES YOUR SENSE OF SMELL |
The Esther M. Klein Art Gallery hours:
Monday-Saturday
9:00am - 5:00pm
Free to Public/Wheelchair Access |
