One man’s stink is another man’s major art project.
A piece by Belgian conceptual artist Jan Fabre at Antwerp’s MuHKA contemporary art museum is challenging the nose as well as the eyes.
The installation “Spring Is on Its Way” consists of onions and potatoes hung from the ceiling in condoms. And the vegetables are, well, spoiling.
— From Organic Art Spoils the Pleasure of Patrons in The Washington Post, an article about artist Jan Fabre’s installation at the exhibit COLLECTIE XXIII, which runs through 4/1 at the MuHKA museum in Antwerp. Many thanks to March for the link! (image via muhka.be)
Bonus reading: Meat sculpture causes stink at BBC News and 2004 interview with Jan Fabre at Sculpture.org.
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I think I'm kind of glad that I decided not to go to Pratt Institute
I obviously don't ~*understand*~ art
This strikes me as one of those “good idea on paper, not in practice” projects. I mean, hell, I love perfume, so the idea of a sculpture or art installation involving fragrance is fascinating. But rotting vegetables? Not so much.
Are the flies attracted by the rot supposed to be part of the exhibit as well, I wonder?
But if you'd gone, you'd know and you'd explain it to the rest of us
If you click on the meat link above, flies were definitely supposed to be part of that one. So why not, what the hey.
I am no doubt focusing on the wrong part of the concept, but for the life of me I can't see how you can jam three onions in a condom. Small, Belgian onions?
Or their condoms are bigger…
Maybe our American onions are bigger.
And here I thought I was ridiculous for wanting to understand how it is that some are dropping to the ground…will rotting veggies break a condom?
Obviously, someone needs to do some serious research here.
Heh. If I remember right some of them are sprouting, I assumed the growth was making them break. But what do I know? Let's nail a buncha stuffed condoms to the kitchen ceiling and find out. I'm putting sardines in mine.
Best laugh I've had all day!! Sardines… My kitty might like it.
This is a testament to the strength of condoms, though!!
Point taken, but I do feel sorry for the guards and other museum staff.
No. Thank. You.
And to follow up on krokodilgena, now I know why I left art school in NYC after 3.5 semesters (and why I wasn't a fine art major anyway).
I see this as one step away from bringing the novels of Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs to the art gallery – where we observe the fly and maggot action on rotting corpses. : – i
I was a fine arts major (music performance – cello). I'll be sticking with John Cage and Harrison Birtwistle over this, thank you.
The emperor is still naked.
So you need something that will sprout. How about sardines + avocados?
No, please!!
True.
Me too. It was great fun to read about this exhibit, but I'd just as soon not smell it.
Whatever happened to the “meat dress” from a few years back?
It was made of raw steaks sewn together… didn't the museums around the world learn anything from that one?
Surely that would have been a sweet scent too…
This is specifically why I have no patience for modern art installations.
Hey, I remember that! Can't remember who did it though.
Cool, do you still play?
I do – it's what I do for my profession. I'm the cellist in a string quartet. I work as a session musician, too (that's the source of the bulk of my income)
Sorry if you've told me before — I have a terrible memory!
“Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic” was created by Jena Sternbak from Montréal and was on display at the National Gallery in Ottawa.
50 pounds of raw steak!!!
Apparently, over 200 people mailed their food scraps to the National Gallery demanding gallery space to display “their art”…
Thank you so much! A link for anyone who wants to read more:
http://collections.walkerart.org/item/object/957