Taste and feel the exhibition: “The Smell of Red” by Erin Manning

How does an object of art sounds? How does an installation with movement could smell? It is not an error-question. The new exhibition “The Smell of Red” by Erin Manning, at Galateca, will propose for the public an experiment of smell, colour, movement and space. Long linen saris and some intense scents of paprika, some saffron, rhubarb and red onion will test our senses. “In this exhibition, I am interested in the sensual confusion of colour and smell, and with how the local lived experience of paprika blurs the boundary between the city and the gallery”, said the artist.

“The Smell of Red (paprika)” of Erin Manning will be opened from 16th of May at Galateca Gallery, in Bucharest. Erin Manning, Artist Talk – starting from 18:00. – www.galateca.ro  

Why did you choose to introduce… the smell with the colours, sounds and movements in your installation? What do expect from the viewers? 

My work over the past 5 years has been engaged with the synthetic relation between smell and colour. It has taken many forms, and this iteration is the third with the title “The Smell of Red”. In this work I move between smell, colour and shape to explore the lived experience of that which exceeds the object-as-art. My interest, for several years, has been in the idea of art as manner (rather than art as object), an interest in how the object stands in for a movement, for a way of encountering experience. In “The Smell of Red (paprika)”, I am interested in the sensual confusion of colour and smell, and with how the local lived experience of paprika blurs the boundary between the city and the gallery.

What was the most difficult part in making  the installation?

My work is always slow. In this piece, I work with two lengths of sari (the dimensions of the work – on hand-loomed linen from India – are equal to two large saris) – which I think of as one of the most intelligent garments. Having worked for a long time with the movement between architecture and garment, this work might be seen as the iteration where both garment and architecture are at their minima, attuned less to the representation of architecture-as-garment (and vice-versa) than to the idea of shape itself. The pulling of thread (from each of the bundles) was probably the most time-intensive aspect of the process.

And, after all, how red is affecting our experience quality?

This will be up to the participants to say. As a synesthete my experience is quite vertiginous in the work given the panoply of colour.

What is the slowest colour? And the fastest? 

My experience of colour doesn’t include speed.

What was your first encounter with art? The first art piece moved your soul? 

I grew up in an artistic family and so was always surrounded by art. Barnett Newman’s Voice of Fire had a deep impact on me in my early teens.

Erin Manning

Erin Manning (born 1969) is a Canadian cultural theorist and political philosopher as well as a practicing artist in the areas of dance, fabric design, and interactive installation. Manning’s research spans the fields of art, political theory, and philosophy. Manning is founder and director of the SenseLab (www.senselab.ca), a research-creation laboratory affiliated with Hexagram: Institute for Research/Creation in Media Arts and Technology] in Montreal, a lab that explores the crossing between art and philosophy through a moving body.

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