In her solo exhibition “Smell Me” at Envoy Enterprise Gallery, which opened on October 20th, the Polish born and New York City based Martynka Wawrzyniak creates the perfect visceral self-portrait. By extracting and bottling her scent, she literally captures her most private essences: her sweat, tears, and hair. The extracted oils and perfumes are the essential elements of the artist, the intimate parts which she chooses to share with the faceless public.
If you think Martynka Wawryzniak's art stinks, she'd probably agree with you. The New York artist's latest exhibition, "Smell Me," consists of vials of scents taken directly from Wawryzniak’s sweat, tears and other bodily odors. Visitors are even treated to a blast of perfume synthesized from the artist’s armpits. In order to gather the materials for her self-portrait, Wawryzniak cried into vials, wore heavy lab coats to force herself to sweat and even stripped the wax directly from her hair after not showering. She also "marinated" herself in a mixture of food-grade paraffin beads and mineral oil to make scented candles.Yummy.
Sweat #5 (S5), 2012, collected on 08.04.2011 – tears essence, glass, brass, 3 x 2 x 2 inches (via Envoy Enterprises)
The crowd outside gallery Envoy Enterprises is here to smell a woman. For “Smell Me,” mixed-media and performance artist Artist Martynka Wawrzyniak has collected aromas from her body and placed them in a scent chamber, where one by one on this opening night, visitors immerse themselves in her aroma.
About a year ago I went to a group show at Bullet Space. I had seen Martynka Wawrzyniak's film "Chocolate" on the internet, loved it, and I was excited to see it projected. While at the show I was thrilled to meet Richard Kern (Martynka's husband) who's one of my favorite photographers. While speaking with him he mentioned that Martynka had begun work on a project in which she would chemically reproduce the smells of her body and present them as a gallery show. I loved the idea but it seemed impossible to me that such a show could actually be practically realized. Who would dare to stage a show in which the primary product was to experience a smell?
Perrier® Presents: The Black Lords by Desi Santiago at Lords South Beach
A BOFFO project, Miami, Florida
December 3rd- 9th, 2012
October 19, 2012, New York, NY – BOFFO is proud to announce a larger than life public art installation by The New York Times "Artist in the Moment," Desi Santiago, from December 3rd - 9th during Art Basel Miami Beach 2012. With their commitment to produce some of the most innovative public art today, BOFFO has partnered with Perrier® Sparkling Natural Mineral Water and Lords South Beach to provide Desi Santiago with a building-sized commission, literally using Lords South Beach as a canvas for his work.
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Tomorrow, artist Martynka Wawrzyniak will open her new show, “Smell Me,” in which she displays the results of her year-long project to collect and synthesize the aromatic elements that make up her personal stink. Her sweat, tears, and hair will be concentrated to create a primal portrait of herself. While some people would be horrified about the prospect of the general public experiencing their odors, she seems to be OK with it. Martynka was kind enough to talk with us about her smelly new show.
Courtesy of the artist and Envoy Enterprises, New YorkMartynka Wawrzyniak’s sweat, tears and hair, as perfume. From left: “Night Shirt #1 (NS1),” “Tears #8 (T8)” and “Sweat #5 (S5).”Who: The performance artist Martynka Wawrzyniak.
What: A new solo exhibition called “Smell Me,” at Envoy Enterprises (87 Rivington Street) opens this Saturday and runs through Nov. 18. The show is all about olfactory experience (so no sniffles, please) and features handblown chemistry vials containing Wawrzyniak’s sweat, tears and hair, as well as a scent chamber (Lady Gaga lent a scent diffuser from her recent perfume launch for the occasion!) in which visitors can inhale a synthetic compilation of Wawrzyniak’s bodily essence.
Why Bother: Martynka Wawrzyniak has been driven by her nose ever since she was a young girl growing up in Communist Poland. “I have incredibly vivid memories of liking certain people because of their smell and being afraid of others because of their smell,” she says, recalling packed bus rides filled with undeodorized passengers. “Nowadays we do everything we can to mask our own essence. We use scented soaps and shampoos and laundry powder and perfume — we all smell like a horrible cocktail.” In a quest to capture the body’s true essence, Wawrzyniak spent the last year capturing and cataloging her body’s own scents. “I wanted to create something completely visceral without any visuals — and that could only be experienced through the primary, primal senses,” she says. “It’s taking the nude self-portrait to the next level of intimacy, because I didn’t know what I would smell like.”
