venus anadyomene, 2014
5 similar pieces each consisting of:
giant clam shell, neon tubing, transformer, high-fire ceramic vessel filled with olive oil, wick, flame, sand, mica, frankincense, benzoin, myrrh, brass
installation view at Ramiken Crucible, April 2014, New York

image courtesy of the artist

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ELAINE CAMERON-WEIR’s venus anadyomene is on display in the group exhibition Flat Neighbors at the Rachel Uffner Gallery in New York. Each piece consists of a suspended giant clam shell, edged with neon tubing, and high-fire ceramic vessel each filled with olive oil, sand, mica, and resins of Benzoin, Myrrh as well as Frankincenses that are being heated over a flame releasing their aroma.

I’m not trying to create decorated spaces by any means, but I am interested in that spirit of figuring out how to create a presence, or an atmosphere, using the relationships between objects, rather than a superficial strategy of merely pointing things out to people and asking if they also see those things. And when I work with scent, the idea of what scent it will be evolves alongside the idea of the object. I never make a sculpture and then decide to add a smell. If I’m making a sculpture that was never intended to be scented it never is scented. I’m not trying to illustrate glamour. – ELAINE CAMERON-WEIR in conversation with ISLA LEAVER-YAP

➝  Flat Neighbors is on view at Rachel Uffner Gallery in New York until October 19, 2014

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