FRESH FRIDAY | ANICKA YI

South Korean artist, Anicka Yi, is interested in the sense of smell and consequently, the lack of its presence within art. Yi's experimentation in creating smells is far from traditional However. many of her works utilize unorthodox materials such as, Convox Dialer Double Distance of a Shining Path (2011), concocted from recalled powered milk, palm tree essence, antidepressants, shaved sea lice, and ground up Teva sandal. The stew that resulted is equal part an artistic experience with smell and a scientific experiment.

Yi uses this strange assortment of materials to create numerous other works all centered around provoking our sense of smell. They are also potentially ephemeral. Yi's chemistry art are orchestrated and planned, however their results are partially unknown, just as an hypothetical science experiment, and vulnerable to decay. In this sense, her work is very hard, not impossible, to archive, let alone sell. Similar to performance art or site specific work, recordings of Yi's pieces may prove to be the work itself for those who are not able to experience them in person.

Her usual use of alive, or just recently dead, materials has placed Yi's work in an interesting niche of conceptual art. Hovering on the border of visual art, Yi's work aims to disrupt and engage the senses, it just so happens to be a sense rarely explored within museum walls.