A Journey into Olfactory Art and the World of Smell
Event
A Journey into Olfactory Art and the World of Smell
17 August 2024
2 - 3:30pm
Castlefield Gallery
Join us for a guided journey into the world of smell – thinking through scent as an artistic medium, presented in partnership with the University of Salford Art Collection. Tied intimately with memory, place and imagination, scent is a tool with potent power but one that is often underused in the artist’s palette.
For this event we will be joined by currently exhibiting artist Jeffrey Knopf and olfactory artist Steven Calver who will guide us through their collaboration translating an image of Sigmund Freud’s office into the smellscape for Jeffrey’s work The Closest I Got to Freud’s Desk (2022). Thinking about multi-sensory approaches to exhibition-making and scent as a sculptural tool, this discussion will open out into a ‘show and smell’ session exploring how a variety of references and raw materials were composed into the complex scent used in the exhibition.
Jeffrey Knopf’s practice employs 3D scanning and additive manufacturing technologies to create many of his sculptures. Utilising the technology of a mobile phone, Knopf has the flexibility to scan artefacts that take his interest within museum collections. The scans are by no means perfect and are affected by environmental conditions, such as lighting and reflections. These factors result in a loss of information, a digital degradation, causing defamiliarisation between what we know and what we see.
Knopf graduated with an MA in Contemporary Fine Art from Salford University in 2021. After graduating he was awarded a scholarship from the Salford University Art Collection in partnership with the Castlefield Gallery. This included a program of post qualification support, mentoring from the artists Nicky Hirst, Ian Dawson and Tim Ellis, as well as studio space for a year in Paradise Works, Salford (which has since become his permanent base).
Steven Calver trained as a composer at the University of Manchester and has since extended his creative practice into exploring scent as an olfactory artist. He has collaborated extensively with multi-media artist Ruby Tingle, creating scents for her exhibitions at Warrington Museum, PAPER Gallery and The Whitaker, and had a solo show, ‘Folklore’, at AIR Gallery in 2022.
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Presented in partnership with the University of Salford Art Collection
This event coincides with our exhibition 40 Years of the Future: Where Should We Be Now?
