Smell: An-Aesthetic

1992

Material / Technique: single-channel video, two-channel audio installation ; 2 monitors, 1 videotape, 1 videotape recorder, Mayo table with instruments, IV stand, muslin curtains, hospital curtains

Description: Maureen Connor made a series of electronic installations for an exhibition at the Germans van Eck Gallery, New York, that focused on the five senses. Our installation is meant to represent smell.
In a circular space delineated by a white sheet, a sort of "hospital cage," the surprised visitor encounters a small table with surgical instruments. A monitor in the upper left corner has the surgeon, an obviously over-friendly doctor, looking down at us. Slowly, the visitor realizes that it is he himself who is the subject of this shark smile. And soon it also becomes understandable that the hand of the nurse presses the ether cloth on our nose. The imagination suggests the strong smell of the ether, even if at last the illusion is not quite enough to become unconscious.
Maureen Connor tells the story of smelling in the helpless state of an incoming danger, an impending operation. In connection with this danger, the idea of a smell intensifies, eventually rendering us unconscious, helpless, possibly lifeless, and placing us in the hands of those we see smiling over us. Maureen Connor tells the story of a problematic moment, and she shows us video images that literally bring forth the smell. The seeing suggests the smelling. The sensory stimuli seem transferable, and - as is so often the case - the impressiveness of the video image evokes synesthetic effects.

Heinrich

Klotz

Images