On the Nose
Robin Rice on Visual Art
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Are you an art smeller? The fact that the English language doesn't have a scent-equivalent to "viewer" or "listener" says something about our intellectually distanced attitude toward smells. Olfactionist? Scenter? All suggest the active production of smells as well as the passive perception of them.
However you style yourself, visit "Odor Limits" at Esther Klein to see how you react. I found myself shrinking from the possibility of odors emanating from the large galvanized dust bins with which Oswaldo Maciá tries to pique the smeller's ability to infer something about imaginary Londoners who tossed this imaginary garbage.
Revealing too much might spoil it, but you can be sure that nothing is disgusting. Unfortunately, nothing smells as complex as real life, either. The baby powder in one of Maciá's bins, for example, is not corrupted by the stinky miasma one would encounter if a real baby were involved.
A second installation by Maciá presents amusing but clichéd smell constellations intended to evoke four different cities. A video component seems simultaneously confusing, unbeautiful and redundant. And why are the smell boxes orange? Maciá passes up opportunities to communicate.
Conceptual oversimplification hovers over the show organized by Canadians Jim Drobnick and Jennifer Fisher. Some pieces are informational and others more gimmicky than deeply felt. In a documentary video by Clara Ursitti, a bloodhound follows her "odor signature" (pictured). In another, Dr. George Dodd sniffs different areas of Ursitti's naked body and discourses quite interestingly on its many distinctive odors, relating these to food and human behaviors. "Oooh! You have a different smell there. ... It really is intriguing." I found myself suppressing a certain creeped-out response.
Jenny Marketou presents a participatory smell map: "Take smell-bound walks to explore your vibrant neighborhood. This will help us improve the quality and sustainability of fresh, breathable air in your city and will help you lose weight." I hope the text is a parody of something. In the 18th century, such quasi-scientific observations were used to improve urban areas. It does remind us of the way we unconsciously recall local scent marks: a bakery, pizzeria, flower shop, Laundromat or auto repair shop.
Marketou's SMELLYOU>SMELLME video monologues in which people describe smells may not be artful, but they are fascinating. Stick around for the cigar-smoking businessman who enthusiastically describes Los Angeles ("Nothing smells better!"), his delicious wood-smelling hotel room in Banff ("You wanna have an orgasm there!") and more.
One piece that moves beyond cleverness to playing with ambiguities of meaning is Chrysanne Stathacos' refurbished vintage vending machine The Wish Machine. It dispenses a vial of scented oil when you pull a knob associated with a photograph. The "meaning" of the picture is not revealed until you receive the sample on a card. Mine was "basil," which apparently smells like money. Smell it now — the show closes on June 28.
Also closing soon is muralist Paul Santoleri's installation Ωmega Warm Garden Sunrise at Eakins House. Psychedelic tentacles, jellyfish and ripple patterns cover the floor, walls and ceiling in black, white and gray. It somewhat echoes Santoleri's permanent mural in color near the entrance (accented by Emilie Ledieu's mosaics). The cartoonish line complements looser tape patterns on the floor, a couple of nests of natural rocks shaded with darker paint and real natural wood benches. Santoleri is brilliant at crafting varied, seemingly improvisational lines like jazz played solo on a flute, but perhaps he should put more pre-planning into transforming the boxy shape of the room. A few painted draperies are too diaphanous, too flat and too small. Nevertheless, it's a strong effort, possibly a step up toward the next level in indoor transformations.
Odor Limits | Through June 28, Esther M. Klein Art Gallery, 3600 Market St., 215-966-6188, kleinartgallery.org
Ωmega Warm Garden Sunrise | Through June 27, Lincoln Financial Mural Arts Center Gallery, Eakins House, 1727-29 Mount Vernon St., 215-685-0750, muralarts.org
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