A solo exhibition of Carrie Paterson’s olfactory artworks and living sculptures at the Institute for Art and Olfaction, Los Angeles’ laboratory for scent experimentation and cross-genre collaboration.
Using a performative and philosophical framework in a survey show of current and past works, Paterson explores memory, displacement, temporality, sensory experience, and diaspora. Her Homesickness Kit for spacefarers, navigation devices, and a map of the heavens made of olfactory cues (Chemisphere) are installed alongside scent-objects that traverse meanings of place and territory and redirect the outward journey to the internal. With salvaged, cast, or natural forms, Paterson considers a diverse history of contemplative practices, from miniatures, bonsai, tabletop landscapes, skipping stones, stargazing, shrines, incense, and other ways we commemorate and mold time. Her collaborative partners are plants and trees — those architects of our pasts and our futures — as well as stones and the wisdom of the inner body, which are on a temporal continuum with the energy of the cosmos. The latent effects of gravity, our attempts to escape it, and the temporary freedom of weightless experience contrast with failure, open systems, and natural decay.
On May 16, join us for a conversation with artist Carrie Paterson and Christopher Michno, art critic and Assistant Director of Pitzer College Art Galleries.
The show runs through Saturday, May 25, with a closing reception hosted by the artist.
