Chromo sapiens
by Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir aka Shoplifter,
Venice Biennale, Nov 2nd 2019
by Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir aka Shoplifter,
Venice Biennale, Nov 2nd 2019
I wrote this report about Chromo sapiens for Research Methodologies in November 2019, shortly after I'd visited the exhibition:
Primary Research Report
The introduction and aim
I will discuss Hrafnhildur Arnardottir (aka Shoplifter)’s immersive installation, Chromo Sapiens, considering the ways in which it communicates meaning through her choice of materials, through colour, touch and sound.
Exhibition, object or artefact? Place of encounter. When?
Chromo sapiens is this year’s Icelandic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. It’s not based in either of the two main Biennale venues but is situated in a converted warehouse, which is now an art gallery, Spazio Punch, on Giudecca, one of the other islands. It’s one of just 2 Biennale interventions on Giudecca, which is a short waterbus ride from the main part of Venice. Giudecca seems to be much more mixed than San Marco, with many rather run down blocks of flats and empty warehouses, vestiges of its industrial past. Some of the warehouses, such as this venue, have obviously been repurposed and gentrified – galleries, luxury flats, smart hotels. The Biennale runs from 11 May to 24 Nov. 2019. I visited it on 2 Nov.
Brief description of the subject/object
Chromo sapiens is a multi-sensory, site-responsive immersive installation. It’s made with multi-coloured polyester hair pieces which have been arranged so that, as the visitor walks through the space, they transition from dark to pale through a rainbow spectrum of vibrant colour. Visitors are invited to sit inside the installation and to touch it. In addition to the visual and tactile experience, the specially commissioned soundtrack from a cult Icelandic band, HAM, adds auditory stimulation.
Describing key attributes
I think that Shoplifter’s Chromo sapiens communicates multiple meanings. Andrew describes textiles as ‘"cultural signifiers" … suggesting communication as a paradigm in which textiles can be critically located and discussed.’ (2008, p32)
Shoplifter’s use of materials is unusual and intriguing; she uses artificial hair. Hair is often associated with self-image and she says that:
‘Hair fascinates (me) in part because of its association with vanity… (I see) hair as a fundamental signifier for identity and its performance. In a positive sense, vanity can be a creative force of self-expression… In art history, vanity has been traditionally associated with mortality: the fleeting versus the eternal. In this context, hair is a ‘vanitas’ symbol for death, growth and decay.’ (in Phaidon, 2019)
For these reasons, real human hair often has associations with abjection. Julia Kristeva describes ‘the abject’ as ‘the human reaction (horror, vomit) to a threatened breakdown in meaning caused by the loss of the distinction between subject and object or between self and other’ (in Felluga 2011). Mary Douglas maintains that it can produce a form of ‘contamination anxiety’ when it’s ‘out of place’. (Sorkin, 2001, p 60) Using hair that is synthetic, however, adds different meanings.
The visitor is invited to touch, to sit, indeed, to lie, in this exuberant space and Miliani suggests that the visitor is ‘contaminated’ (2019) by being the experience. I suggest that it’s a very different kind of contamination to Douglas’ though. The Icelandic Pavilion’s curator, Birta Guðjónsdóttir, invites visitors ‘to enter a sensory cavern from which they will exit transformed.’ (ibid). Instead of abjection, the mix of colour and hairiness produce something joyous, mood-enhancing and humorous. Although I did come away with multiple strands of artificial hair attached to my clothing!
Shoplifter says ‘tactility is everything to me’ and suggests that
‘we wear woven garments against our skin … and therefore people can easily relate to art made of fibres and fabric. It activates and affects us in its analogue form alongside our rich online reality where we travel through the untouchable mental fabrication of the digital realm.’ (in Phaidon, no date)
Textile surfaces also often blur the senses of touch and sight. ‘The eye…does not simply look. It also feels. Its response is both visual and tactile…’ the senses are ‘…each enfolded in the other’ (Barnett, 1999, p185). We often know how something feels just by looking at it and Shoplifter’s hairy installation is a good example of this.
However, actually being invited to touch these surfaces ‘defies our societal limitation on touching art’ and ‘allows participants to absorb a new level of meaning.’ (Artsy, 2016) Combining the auditory, visual and tactile stimuli this becomes a truly immersive experience.
What is the purpose of the artifact/exhibition/object?
Chromo sapiens was commissioned by the Icelandic Arts Centre, the commissioner for the Icelandic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The Icelandic Art Centre’s role is to introduce and support Icelandic visual arts abroad.
Research questions
In what ways can colour be used in art to provoke a range of responses?
What is the history of art that can be touched and what impact does touching have on the viewer’s experience and on the perceived status of that art?
Conclusion
I have considered a number of ways that Shoplifter has created particular meanings in this installation using textiles, through visual, tactile and auditory experience.
Reflection
Writing this report has definitely broadened my understanding of my experiences in Chromo sapiens. It has been useful to have to analyse why I felt what I felt, but also to discover other people’s reactions. Different people will respond to this in different ways. It makes me think of learning styles; I recognise that I am a kinaesthetic learner, and also an artist who use textiles, so a multi-sensory, immersive installation of synthetic hair like Chromo sapiens suits me very well. Some people would possibly dismiss it as frivolous because of the materials and the colour palette, but I feel that it has some depth to it. It interests me to compare it with my response to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition which I remember describing as ‘sensory overload’. Was that because I couldn’t touch so had to rely exclusively on sight?
References
Books
Barnett, P. (1999) ‘Folds, fragments and surfaces: towards a poetics of cloth’ in Hemmings, J. (ed.) (2012) The Textile Reader, Berg: London, New York pp 182 -190
Sorkin, J. (2001) ‘Stain: on cloth, stigma and shame’ in Hemmings, J.(ed.) (2012) The Textile Reader, Berg: London, New York pp 60-63
Journals
Dormor, C., 2008, ‘skin: textile: film’ in Textile, Volume 6, Issue 3, pp 238-253
Online Journal articles
Andrew, S. (2008) ‘Textile Semantics: Considering a Communication-based Reading of Textiles’, Textile: the journal of cloth and culture 6 (1), p 32-65 Published online: 01 May 2015 Available from: https://eds-a-ebscohost-com.bathspa.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=c11dde67-fda7-4a1d-b962-0ab3d037d37b%40sdc-v-sessmgr03 (Accessed 4 November 2019)
Websites
Artsy (2016) Please touch the art, Available from: https://www.artsy.net/show/cantor-fine-art-please-touch-the-art
Felluga, D. (2011) Modules on Kristeva, Introductory guide to Critical Theory, Available from: http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/psychoanalysis/kristevaabject.html (Accessed: 27 September 2013)
Miliani, J. (2019) ‘The Chromo Sapiens cavern in the Icelandic pavilion is a volcano of hair’ Domus Magazine 24 May Available from: https://www.domusweb.it/en/speciali/venice-art-biennale/2019/the-chromo-sapiens-cavern-in-the-icelandic-pavilion-is-a-volcano-of-hair.html (Accessed: 4 November 2019)
Phaidon (No date) Talking textiles with Shoplifter Available at: https://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/art/articles/2019/may/09/talking-textiles-with-shoplifter/ (Accessed: 4 November 2019)
Images
Fig 1. Chromo sapiens (2019) Installation 5, Available at: https://www.chromosapiens.us/ (Accessed: 4 November 2019)
Fig 2. Chromo sapiens (2019) Installation 1, Available at: https://www.chromosapiens.us/ (Accessed: 4 November 2019)
Primary Research Report
The introduction and aim
I will discuss Hrafnhildur Arnardottir (aka Shoplifter)’s immersive installation, Chromo Sapiens, considering the ways in which it communicates meaning through her choice of materials, through colour, touch and sound.
Exhibition, object or artefact? Place of encounter. When?
Chromo sapiens is this year’s Icelandic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. It’s not based in either of the two main Biennale venues but is situated in a converted warehouse, which is now an art gallery, Spazio Punch, on Giudecca, one of the other islands. It’s one of just 2 Biennale interventions on Giudecca, which is a short waterbus ride from the main part of Venice. Giudecca seems to be much more mixed than San Marco, with many rather run down blocks of flats and empty warehouses, vestiges of its industrial past. Some of the warehouses, such as this venue, have obviously been repurposed and gentrified – galleries, luxury flats, smart hotels. The Biennale runs from 11 May to 24 Nov. 2019. I visited it on 2 Nov.
Brief description of the subject/object
Chromo sapiens is a multi-sensory, site-responsive immersive installation. It’s made with multi-coloured polyester hair pieces which have been arranged so that, as the visitor walks through the space, they transition from dark to pale through a rainbow spectrum of vibrant colour. Visitors are invited to sit inside the installation and to touch it. In addition to the visual and tactile experience, the specially commissioned soundtrack from a cult Icelandic band, HAM, adds auditory stimulation.
Describing key attributes
I think that Shoplifter’s Chromo sapiens communicates multiple meanings. Andrew describes textiles as ‘"cultural signifiers" … suggesting communication as a paradigm in which textiles can be critically located and discussed.’ (2008, p32)
Shoplifter’s use of materials is unusual and intriguing; she uses artificial hair. Hair is often associated with self-image and she says that:
‘Hair fascinates (me) in part because of its association with vanity… (I see) hair as a fundamental signifier for identity and its performance. In a positive sense, vanity can be a creative force of self-expression… In art history, vanity has been traditionally associated with mortality: the fleeting versus the eternal. In this context, hair is a ‘vanitas’ symbol for death, growth and decay.’ (in Phaidon, 2019)
For these reasons, real human hair often has associations with abjection. Julia Kristeva describes ‘the abject’ as ‘the human reaction (horror, vomit) to a threatened breakdown in meaning caused by the loss of the distinction between subject and object or between self and other’ (in Felluga 2011). Mary Douglas maintains that it can produce a form of ‘contamination anxiety’ when it’s ‘out of place’. (Sorkin, 2001, p 60) Using hair that is synthetic, however, adds different meanings.
The visitor is invited to touch, to sit, indeed, to lie, in this exuberant space and Miliani suggests that the visitor is ‘contaminated’ (2019) by being the experience. I suggest that it’s a very different kind of contamination to Douglas’ though. The Icelandic Pavilion’s curator, Birta Guðjónsdóttir, invites visitors ‘to enter a sensory cavern from which they will exit transformed.’ (ibid). Instead of abjection, the mix of colour and hairiness produce something joyous, mood-enhancing and humorous. Although I did come away with multiple strands of artificial hair attached to my clothing!
Shoplifter says ‘tactility is everything to me’ and suggests that
‘we wear woven garments against our skin … and therefore people can easily relate to art made of fibres and fabric. It activates and affects us in its analogue form alongside our rich online reality where we travel through the untouchable mental fabrication of the digital realm.’ (in Phaidon, no date)
Textile surfaces also often blur the senses of touch and sight. ‘The eye…does not simply look. It also feels. Its response is both visual and tactile…’ the senses are ‘…each enfolded in the other’ (Barnett, 1999, p185). We often know how something feels just by looking at it and Shoplifter’s hairy installation is a good example of this.
However, actually being invited to touch these surfaces ‘defies our societal limitation on touching art’ and ‘allows participants to absorb a new level of meaning.’ (Artsy, 2016) Combining the auditory, visual and tactile stimuli this becomes a truly immersive experience.
What is the purpose of the artifact/exhibition/object?
Chromo sapiens was commissioned by the Icelandic Arts Centre, the commissioner for the Icelandic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The Icelandic Art Centre’s role is to introduce and support Icelandic visual arts abroad.
Research questions
In what ways can colour be used in art to provoke a range of responses?
What is the history of art that can be touched and what impact does touching have on the viewer’s experience and on the perceived status of that art?
Conclusion
I have considered a number of ways that Shoplifter has created particular meanings in this installation using textiles, through visual, tactile and auditory experience.
Reflection
Writing this report has definitely broadened my understanding of my experiences in Chromo sapiens. It has been useful to have to analyse why I felt what I felt, but also to discover other people’s reactions. Different people will respond to this in different ways. It makes me think of learning styles; I recognise that I am a kinaesthetic learner, and also an artist who use textiles, so a multi-sensory, immersive installation of synthetic hair like Chromo sapiens suits me very well. Some people would possibly dismiss it as frivolous because of the materials and the colour palette, but I feel that it has some depth to it. It interests me to compare it with my response to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition which I remember describing as ‘sensory overload’. Was that because I couldn’t touch so had to rely exclusively on sight?
References
Books
Barnett, P. (1999) ‘Folds, fragments and surfaces: towards a poetics of cloth’ in Hemmings, J. (ed.) (2012) The Textile Reader, Berg: London, New York pp 182 -190
Sorkin, J. (2001) ‘Stain: on cloth, stigma and shame’ in Hemmings, J.(ed.) (2012) The Textile Reader, Berg: London, New York pp 60-63
Journals
Dormor, C., 2008, ‘skin: textile: film’ in Textile, Volume 6, Issue 3, pp 238-253
Online Journal articles
Andrew, S. (2008) ‘Textile Semantics: Considering a Communication-based Reading of Textiles’, Textile: the journal of cloth and culture 6 (1), p 32-65 Published online: 01 May 2015 Available from: https://eds-a-ebscohost-com.bathspa.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=c11dde67-fda7-4a1d-b962-0ab3d037d37b%40sdc-v-sessmgr03 (Accessed 4 November 2019)
Websites
Artsy (2016) Please touch the art, Available from: https://www.artsy.net/show/cantor-fine-art-please-touch-the-art
Felluga, D. (2011) Modules on Kristeva, Introductory guide to Critical Theory, Available from: http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/psychoanalysis/kristevaabject.html (Accessed: 27 September 2013)
Miliani, J. (2019) ‘The Chromo Sapiens cavern in the Icelandic pavilion is a volcano of hair’ Domus Magazine 24 May Available from: https://www.domusweb.it/en/speciali/venice-art-biennale/2019/the-chromo-sapiens-cavern-in-the-icelandic-pavilion-is-a-volcano-of-hair.html (Accessed: 4 November 2019)
Phaidon (No date) Talking textiles with Shoplifter Available at: https://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/art/articles/2019/may/09/talking-textiles-with-shoplifter/ (Accessed: 4 November 2019)
Images
Fig 1. Chromo sapiens (2019) Installation 5, Available at: https://www.chromosapiens.us/ (Accessed: 4 November 2019)
Fig 2. Chromo sapiens (2019) Installation 1, Available at: https://www.chromosapiens.us/ (Accessed: 4 November 2019)