THE FIVE SENSES

scottsdale museum of contemporary art

We are all sculptors and painters,
and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones.
1
Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854
Consciousness is always in rapid change.
It is the continuous readjustment of self and the world in experience.
2
John Dewey, Art as Experience, 1934
Janet Cardiff I Olafur Eliasson I Spencer Finch I Roelof Louw I Ernesto Neto
THE FIVE SENSES
THE DELICACY OF THE WORLD
3
CONTENTS
A visitor to an art museum naturally expects to see the art, not hear it. To anticipate
smelling, tasting or touching the art requires an even more radical leap. The Five Senses
begins with a simple premise: five senses, five works of art. However, as with many
perceptual, cognitive and phenomenological issues, closer examination reveals a more
nuanced web of interrelationships. The imaginative sculptures of renowned international
artists Janet Cardiff, Olafur Eliasson, Spencer Finch, Roelof Louw and Ernesto Neto
activate the body and mind (or mind-body if one rejects a distinction between mind and
matter), cross boundaries and dodge museum conventions.
The human body experiences sensation through an inextricable aggregate of biology,
physics, neurology and chemistry. Recent scientific research into human perception and
sensory awareness indicates a very rich spectrum of experience. This increasing understanding
of complex sensory modalities suggests that perceptions of time, space and temperature
are as significant as sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell.
4
That premise is confirmed in the
artworks in this exhibition. Artist Spencer Finchs careful synchronization of electric fans,
2 Hours, 2 Minutes, 2 Seconds (Wind at Walden Pond, March 12, 2007) (2007) melds the
unexpected, visceral thrill of wind to the romance of philosopher Henry David Thoreaus
cherished forest and creates a liminal space between technology and nature, body and
consciousness. Beauty (1993), an installation by Olafur Eliasson, constructs a setting of
sensory contrasts shifts between darkness and light, warm and cool, dry and damp
that amplifies the spectacular visual experience of standing amidst water and a beautiful
spectrum of fractured light. The stretched, sagging, globular forms of Ernesto Netos spice-
filled structures, Cai Cai Marrom (2007) infuse the gallery with rich scents and heighten
awareness of the architectural context around the sculpture. Soul City, Roelof Louws
colorful pyramid of six thousand ripe oranges (1967) perched atop one another, invites the
visitor to select a piece of fruit activating four of the five the senses: taste, sight, smell
and touch. In Janet Cardiffs audio installation, The Forty Part Motet (2001), a 40-voice,
16th-century choral composition drifts among 40 speakers, each projecting the voice of an
individual singer.
Encounters with these five works are forthright and direct: hearing the haunting tones of
ecclesiastical music, tasting the tart flesh of an orange, seeing a rainbow, feeling the wind
on ones skin, inhaling the heady scent of spice. Just as effortlessly, one perceives the
rich yellow-orange color of turmeric, the acoustic hum of box fans cycling on and off, the
vibrations of music skipping from speaker to speaker, the sharp smell of citrus, the humidity
of a mist-filled room.
I
II
III
IV
V
Janet Cardiff, The Forty Part Motet
The Delicacy of the World: Introduction
02
01
06
10
14
18
22
Olafur Eliasson, Beauty
Spencer Finch, 2 Hours,2 Minutes, 2 Seconds
(Wind at Walden Pond, March 12, 2007)
Ernesto Neto, Cai Cai Marrom
The Delicacy of the World: Conclusion
Roelof Louw, Soul City (Pyramid of Oranges)
01
1 Previous Spread, Left Page: Henry David Thoreau, Walden, in Walden and Other Writings of Henry David Thoreau, ed. Brooks Atkinson (New York: The Modern
Library, 1993), p. 209.
2 Previous Spread, Left Page: John Dewey, Art as Experience (New York: Penguin/Perigee, 2005), p. 277.
3 Ernesto Neto, interview by Ralph Rugoff, An Interview with Ernesto Neto, in Ernesto Neto: The Edges of the World, ed. Cliff Lauson, et al. (London: Hayward
Publishing, 2010), p. 24.
4 For more information about how new scientific research on sensory modalities challenges traditional philosophical views (including phenomenology,
a touchstone for much art-historical theory), see The Senses: Classic and Contemporary Philosophical Perspectives, ed. Fiona Macpherson
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).
For The Forty Part Motet, Canadian sound artist Janet Cardiff commissioned the congregational
choir of Englands spectacular Gothic Salisbury Cathedral to perform a choral arrangement
written by 16th-century composer Thomas Tallis. Spem in alium, an a capella composition
often referred to as Forty Part Motet, is considered a masterwork of counterpoint, in which
individual voices harmonize, but with varying rhythm and pitch. To maximize its power and
uniqueness, Cardiff recorded each singers voice on a single channel.
Cardiffs installation is more than a technically complex recording of Talliss music. Her 40
synchronized loudspeakers are carefully arranged in a large oval in eight groups of five
mirroring the way Tallis composed the piece for eight quintets. The speakers, mounted at
eye level, occupy an oddly anthropomorphic position. Visitors meander freely among them,
as music fills the room and each voice lifts, blends and disperses.
In a live choral performance, the sound travels in one direction toward the audience; even
the privileged choirmaster receives the unified sound at once. By isolating each voice and
projecting sound from 360 degrees, Cardiff creates a radically different sensory experience.
She describes her motivation in the simplest terms: I just wanted to climb inside and hear
them individually.
5
For Cardiff, feeling the vibrations of the music is as essential as hearing
it. Step by step, visitors move through the shifting boundaries of sound. She explains the
piece is about how our bodies are affected by sound. Thats really the driving force.
6
Janet Cardiff (b. 1957 Brussels, Ontario, Canada) lives and works in Grindrod, British Columbia,
and Berlin. She graduated with a BFA from Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada in
1980 and received a Master of Visual Arts degree from the University of Alberta, Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada in 1983. Cardiff and her partner, George Bures Miller (b. 1960 Canada) with
whom she often works, exhibited large-scale installations at the Venice Biennale in 2001
and 2011, as well as at Documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany in 2012. Three major surveys of
Cardiffs work have been organized by the Museum of Modern Art and P.S. 1 Contemporary
Art Center, New York (2001); Modern Art Oxford, United Kingdom (2008); and the Art Gallery
of Ontario (2013). Cardiff and Miller are also the recipients the German Academy of Arts
prestigious Kthe Kollwitz Prize.
Janet Cardiff, The Forty Part Motet, 2001
I
05
5 Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Janet Cardiff: A Survey of Works Including Collaborations with George Bures Miller (Long Island City: P.S.1. Contemporary Art Center,
2001), p. 142.
6 Ibid.
Previous Spread and Opposite Page,Top: Janet Cardiff, The Forty Part Motet, 2001. Reworking of Spem in Alium Nunquam habui (1575) by Thomas Tallis; 40-track
sound recording (14:00 minutes), 40 speakers. Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, NewYork. Gift of Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder in memory of Rolf Hoffmann,
2002. Image courtesy of the artist and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK. Janet Cardiff. Photo: Colin Davison
Opposite Page, Bottom: Salisbury Cathedral, Salisbury, United Kingdom
II
Olafur Eliasson, Beauty, 1993
Olafur Eliassons Beauty, consisting of an electric light, water and a hose, is technically
simple. This intimate, human-scale work from 1993 predates Eliassons massive outdoor
and architectural installations. Danish-Icelandic, Eliasson grew up in close proximity to
the ocean. The natural world features throughout his art, whether sculpture, installation or
photography and light projections. Eliasson invites viewers into an environment to consider
their place in nature and amidst fluctuating elemental materials. Distinctions between mind
and body are blurred in the perceptual experience.
Viewers enter Beauty through a series of dim corridors in which humidity and temperature
shift incrementally. The floor slopes gently upward and seemingly all at once light spills
through a doorway opening onto a cloud of mist and a rainbow. In the split seconds before
the eyes adjust to the drastic change in light levels, sight, temperature and time all seem
heightened. As viewers intuit and enter the space of the room, they experience subtle
changes in the rainbow from different angles.
Although the installation requires a specific environment, the artwork itself is the light
fractured through the multitudes of water droplets. Beauty truly exists in a liminal space
a threshold between the outside world and an interior world and serves as a metaphor
for the delicate and subtle shifting of sensory perception.
Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967 Copenhagen, Denmark) lives and works in Copenhagen and Berlin.
He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen from 1989 to 1995.
Eliasson represented Denmark in the 2003 So Paulo Biennial, the 1997 Istanbul Biennial,
the 1999 Carnegie International and the 2003 Venice Biennale. TheSan Francisco Museum
of Modern Art organized Eliassons first major retrospective in the United States,Take Your
Time: Olafur Eliasson, in 2008. Eliassons largest public installations include The Weather
Project, Tate Modern, London (2003); the annual Serpentine Gallery Pavilion design (2007);
and New York City Waterfalls commissioned by Public Art Fund, New York (2008). The most
recent exhibitions were Olafur Eliasson: Little Sun at the Tate Modern, and EXPO 1: New
York, a group exhibition organized by the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center (both 2012).
09
Previous Spread and Opposite Page,Top: Olafur Eliasson, Beauty, 1993. Spotlight, water, nozzles, hose and electric pump, dimensions variable. Collection of the
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Purchased with funds provided by Paul Frankel. Installation view at Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. Image
courtesy of the artist, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York and neugerriemschneider, Berlin. Olafur Eliasson. Photo: Jens Ziehe
Opposite Page, Bottom: Olafur Eliasson, Iceland Series, 2002. C-print, unique. Private Collection. Image courtesy of the artist, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery,
New York and neugerriemschneider, Berlin. Olafur Eliasson
Spencer Finch, 2 Hours,2 Minutes, 2 Seconds
(Wind at Walden Pond, March 12, 2007), 2007
American artist Spencer Finch is highly regarded for his aesthetic experiments in visual
perception and sensory experience working with natural phenomena: light, color, wind
and water. In 2 Hours,2 Minutes, 2 Seconds (Wind at Walden Pond, March 12, 2007),
Finch used scientific methodology in an attempt to replicate his encounter with wind on a
spring day. Forty-four box fans stacked four high are arranged in a semicircle. A computer
program regulates the fans to blow air at the exact speed and from the precise direction as
the wind on March 12, 2007 during Finchs visit to Walden Pond. Using an anemometer and
weathervane, Finch scrupulously measured, recorded and calculated wind speed and intensity
at the body of water in an effort to quantify sensation, and therefore consciousness.
Finch regularly fuses the scientific with the literary in his art. 2 Hours,2 Minutes, 2 Seconds
(Wind at Walden Pond, March 12, 2007) points to the American transcendentalist Henry David
Thoreaus autobiographical account of his sojourn in the woods alongside the picturesque
Walden pond, near Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau lived this isolated existence for two
years, two months and two days. Finchs homage to Thoreaus simple and sincere commitment
to the basic elements of life re-creates an experience Thoreau likely had, standing at the edge
of the water and feeling the wind on his skin. Eschewing the Romantic literary tradition with
which Thoreau was associated, Finch delved into physics to quantify sensation.
Spencer Finch (b. 1962 New Haven, Connecticut) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
He attended Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan, and received his BA from Hamilton College,
Clinton, New York, in 1985, and his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence,
in 1989. Finchs many exhibitions include the 2004 Whitney Biennial, the 2009 Venice Biennale
and the 2011 Folkstone Triennial. In 2007, Finchs most significant survey, What Time Is It on
the Sun? was organized by the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams.
A second mid-career retrospective, Spencer Finch: My Business, with the Cloud, was
organized by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., in 2010. In 2012, the Museum
of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design commissioned the monumental site-specific
installation Painting Air: Spencer Finch. The Indianapolis Art Museum presented his most
recent solo exhibition, Spencer Finch: Following Nature (2013). Finch also collaborated with
the nonprofit Creative Time in 1999 to create an alternative audio guide for The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York, and more recently with the High Line in 2009 to create the public
art installation The River Flows Both Ways.
III
13
Previous Spread and Opposite Page,Top: Spencer Finch, 2 hours, 2 minutes, 2 seconds (Wind at Walden Pond, March 12, 2007), 2007. 44 fans, wood and
computerized dimmer board, 93 inches tall, 14 feet in diameter. Collection of Cifo-Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation. Image courtesy of the artist
and Lisson Gallery, London. Spencer Finch
Opposite Page, Bottom: Wind on Walden Pond, 2007. Image courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery, London. Spencer Finch
IV
Roelof Louw, Soul City (Pyramid of Oranges), 1967
Roelof Louw maintains a willful irreverence toward modernist notions of the immutability
of sculpture. With the exception of the Surrealists and Dadaists, sculpture prior to
Conceptualism was defined by its permanence. Louw is a British artist educated in London
during the late 1960s a hotbed of groundbreaking conceptual art. Like much of the
work from this milieu, according to art historian Joy Sleeman, Louws art represents the
transition from the constructed object to something less formally bounded and in direct
dialogue with its environment.
7
Louws inspiration for Soul City (Pyramid of Oranges) came
as he walked through the famous fruit and vegetable market Covent Garden.
The sculpture consists of a pyramid of six thousand carefully stacked oranges. Louw
selected the orange because of two qualities: each unit is small enough to hold in one
hand and the similar spheres are capable of being shaped into a larger structure. Although
the sculpture bears no clear directive, visitors are welcome to take and eat the oranges.
As the fruit disappears, the solid geometric configuration of the pyramid transforms into
new and unpredictable shapes. The visitors perception of the oranges their surface,
texture, color, weight, smell and taste is heightened by the subversive act of removing a
piece of artwork from a museum and consuming it. Louw acknowledges the hippie ethos
of the 1960s informed the project. Accepting a gift from a stranger enables the visitor to
participate in the creation of the artwork and engage in a personal exchange with the artist.
Roelof Louw (b. 1936 Cape Town, South Africa) lives and works in London. He studied
and later taught at Central St. Martins College of Arts and Design, London, subsequently
dividing his time among Cape Town, New York and London. In 1969, Louws earliest works
were featured in the seminal exhibition Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Forms
at The Institute of Contemporary Art London, as well in a solo exhibition at the Museum
of Modern Art Oxford, United Kingdom. In 1970, Louw represented England at the Tokyo
Biennale. Later group exhibitions include the Gteborg Museum of Art, Sweden (1970);
the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts (1980); and Londons Whitechapel
Gallery (2000). In 2009, Louw delivered a paper at the symposium United Enemies:
Rethinking Sculpture in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s. His art criticism has appeared in
Artforum, Studio International and Tracks: A Journal of Artists Writings.
17 17
7 Joy Sleeman, Like Two Guys Discovering Neptune, in Anglo-American Exchange in Postwar Sculpture, 1945 1975, ed. Rebecca Peabody
(Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011), p. 156.
Previous Spread: Roelof Louw, Soul City (Pyramid of Oranges), 1967. 6,000 oranges, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist and Richard Saltoun, London.
Roelof Louw
Opposite Page: Roelof Louw, Soul City (Pyramid of Oranges), 1967. 6,000 oranges, dimensions variable. Archival images courtesy of the artist and
Studio International. Roelof Louw 17
Ernesto Neto, Cai Cai Marrom, 2007
Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto designs interactive sculptures and architectural interventions
that engage smell, touch and sight. His beautifully chimeric work is a hybrid of
anthropomorphism, minimalist form and the conceptual, sensory-driven sculptures of
the Brazilian avant-garde in the 1960s. Im not trying to make design-based works. I try
instead to create a kind of fantasy of nature, and a hypothesis about a structure of a body.
8

The word organelle is often used to describe Netos sculptures. The lumpy, globular and
sagging nylon forms resemble the internal structures of living plant and animal cells.
Cai Cai Marrom is a beautiful example of Netos spice works. The delicate netting holds
pounds of the sensuous spices turmeric, pepper and cinnamon. The pungent smells waft
through the gallery, allowing viewers to encounter the artwork before they see it. The rigid
structures necessary to suspend and support the biomorphic forms are easily visible. Neto
asserts, If you look at my work, you see theres nothing hidden. I always want to be very
honest. I want everything to be very transparent. [I] wanted to develop things so you
could see the structure.
9
However, despite the straightforward materials spicy-sweet
aroma, rich colors and pliable nylon and formal composition, the artwork is nonetheless
dependent upon each unique visitors perception.
Ernesto Neto (b. 1964 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) lives and works in his hometown. He received
his education at the School of Visual Arts Pargua Lage, Rio de Janeiro, and Museu de Arte
Moderna, So Paulo, Brazil. Netos work first came to international prominence during the
inaugural Liverpool Biennial in 1999. He represented Brazil at the 2001 Venice Biennale. He
realized his largest installation, anthropodino, at the Park Avenue Armory, New York (2009).
The following year, the Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London, presented Ernesto
Neto: The Edges of the World, an exhibition that involved every gallery. Ernestos Tongue:
Works 19872011, presented by the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City, brought
together sculptures, drawings, photographs and objects in one exhibition. Neto is also the
recipient of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an award bestowed by the government of
France in honor of the artists 2006 sculpture Lviathan Thot, installed at the Panthon,Paris.
V
21
8 Ralph Rugoff, An Interview with Ernesto Neto, in Ernesto Neto: The Edges of the World, p. 22.
9 Ibid.
Previous Spread: Ernesto Neto, Cai Cai Marrom, 2007. Polyamide, wood, turmeric, pepper and clove, 196 118 118 inches. Collection of the Prez Art Museum
Miami, museum purchase with funds from the PAMMCollectors Council. Reproduced with the permission of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York.
Ernesto Neto. Photo: Sid Hoeltzell
Opposite Page, Top; detail: Ernesto Neto, Cai Cai Marrom, 2007. Polyamide, wood, turmeric, pepper and clove, 196 118 118 inches. Collection of the Prez Art
Museum Miami, museum purchase with funds from the PAMMCollectors Council. Image courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York.
Ernesto Neto. Photo: Jean Vong
Opposite Page, Bottom: Turmeric spice
THE FIVE SENSES
Janet Cardiff I Olafur Eliasson I Spencer Finch I Roelof Louw I Ernesto Neto
February 1 May 4, 2014
Organized by and 2014 Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
Claire C. Carter, curator and essayist
Edited by t. a. neff associates, inc. Tucson, Arizona
Publication designed by Ravance Lanier
All artworks the artists
7380 East Second Street
Scottsdale, Arizona 85251
www.smoca.org
All rights reserved. No parts of the contents of this brochure may
be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.
The Scottsdale Cultural Council, a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) management organization, is contracted by the
City of Scottsdale, Ariz., to administer certain City arts and cultural projects and to manage the City-owned
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts and Scottsdale Public Art.
The programs of the Scottsdale Cultural Council are made possible, in part, by the support of members and
donors and grants received from the Arizona Commission on the Arts through appropriations from the Arizona
State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.
10 For a basic progression of this art-historical dialogue, see Dewey, Art as Experience; Donald Judd, Specific Objects, in Contemporary Sculpture: Arts Yearbook8,
ed. William Seitz (New York: The Art Digest, 1965); Miwon Kwon, One Place After Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity (Cambridge, Massachusetts:
The MIT Press, 2002); and Claire Bishop, But is it Installation Art?, in Tate Etc. 3: Spring 2005., ed. Bice Curiger and Simon Grant. (London: Tate Gallery Publications),
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/it-installation-art, accessed April 21, 2013.
11 Nicolas de Oliveira, Installation Art in the New Millennium (London: Thames and Hudson, 2003), pp. 16 17.
12 Ernesto Neto, interview by Ralph Rugoff, An Interview with Ernesto Neto, in Ernesto Neto: The Edges of the World, ed. Cliff Lauson, et al. (London: Hayward
Publishing, 2010), p. 24. THE DELICACY OF THE WORLD.
12
It is tempting to consider the sculptures in The Five Senses from a strictly dualist position:
does one experience the artworks or encounter the art objects? An early attempt to describe
the in-between or transitional space between individuals distinct (perceptions of) reality is
metaxy, a concept from Platos philosophical symposiums. More recently, this prescriptive
line of questioning has become deeply rooted in the tussle between modernism and
postmodernism. And yet somehow, the works by Cardiff, Eliasson, Finch, Louw and Neto
resist categorization within the argument between the primacy of subject versus object.
10
Instead, these sculptures resonate with what art historian Nicolas de Oliveira argued was
the viewers contribution to an artwork as one of many essential components in its meaning:
The perceived absence of apparent control mechanisms or the lack of an explicit
message in these works suggests an understanding shared between the artist and
the audience. The audience is encouraged to choose its own interpretation without
relying on that of the artist. Artists and curators are indeed motivating spectators to
experience works in an open-ended manner and become authors and generators of
their own meanings.
11
In each of the works comprising The Five Senses, the hand of the artist is not obscured,
but absent. In the sincere effort to abolish any obstruction between the action and the
participant, the artists removed themselves from the relationship between viewer, sculpture
and experience.
The playful artworks inspire a sense of awe and wonderment, curiosity and imagination.
The 18th-century Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge coined the term esemplastic
to signify the way an artists active imagination weaves together the commonplace
words, images, emotions, thoughts to create a unified composition. In fact, words are an
essential framing element for each sculpture in The Five Senses. Finch and Cardiff assigned
their artworks titles drawn from other works of art. The title of Ernesto Netos sculpture,
Cai Cai Marrom, evokes the syncopated rhythm of a poem. Eliasson assigned the fundamental
definition of aesthetic pleasure to his work Beauty. Roelof Louws title, Soul City (Pyramid
of Oranges), gently refers to the individual and the larger city, which in turn also references
the formal organization of each orange within the sculptures larger geometry.
The ability to assign, dissect and define sensory experience does not alter the fact that the
senses remain inextricably interconnected. One cannot taste an orange without seeing
its bright color, touching its pitted skin, smelling the oils as it is peeled. Similarly, objective
definitions of aesthetic encounters are thwarted by the fusion of visceral input, philosophical
inquiry, emotional response and creative imagination that lies at the core of arts expressive
power. The five seminal sculptures in The Five Senses render mute the traditional static
presentation of the aesthetic object. Instead, they transform the museum into a place to
be exposed to art that draws on imagination. Each work extends an invitation of welcome:
Please explore with us. Listen, touch, see, taste, smell the world around you. Embrace...