Sensing: ____
with Maite Gomez-Rejón (ArtBites), Saskia Wilson-Brown (The Institute for Art and Olfaction)
Locations variable
Ongoing
Maite Gomez-Rejón (ArtBites) and Saskia Wilson-Brown (Institute for Art and Olfaction) join forces on a series of in-person sessions that explore artworks through the senses.
‘Sensing: ____’ takes the form of biannual multi-sensorial sessions that explore art through scent, taste, sound, touch and sight. Connecting two artworks at an institution to the broader cultural context in which they were made, Maite and Saskia share insight into the trade, the history, and the material culture informing the paintings – with a special emphasis and food and perfume history. Each session gives participants an opportunity to experience the tastes, sounds and smells of the period through hands-on creation.
Through this series, we hope to bring a greater depth of understanding and appreciation to the world’s remarkable art works.
FUTURE SESSIONS
Sensing: John Waters
at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
July 27, 2024
Join the Academy Museum for an evening conversation inspired by the exhibition John Waters: Pope of Trash, followed by a cocktail making and perfumery workshop inspired by the films of John Waters with Saskia Wilson-Brown of the Institute of Art and Olfaction and Maite Gomez-Rejon of ArtBites.
Odorama was a ground breaking experience that timed sniffing odors with the projection of film. Saskia and Maite will be adding the sensation of taste to smell, both good and bad. They will bring people closer to the tastes and smells of peach, bread, coffee, church incense, yellow rose, wood, grass, and leather by pulling inspiration from a selection of Waters’s films, such as Polyester (1981), Hairspray (1988), and Serial Mom (1994).
6:30pm | Exhibition Conversation, John Waters: Pope of Trash, Level 4
7pm | Cocktail making workshop, TMT Lobby
7:30pm | Perfume making workshop, TMT Lobby
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PAST SESSIONS
Sensing: Odalisque
at Norton Simon Museum + The Institute for Art and Olfaction
February 4, 2024
Maite Gomez-Rejon (ArtBites) and Saskia Wilson-Brown (Institute for Art and Olfaction) join forces on the third edition of their Sensing series. In this edition, we will use our senses to explore two vital but challenging artworks on display at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.
Works:
Woman in a Moorish Costume (1869)
by Jean-Frédéric Bazille (French, 1841-1870)
Women of Algiers, Version “I” (1955)
by Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973)
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Sensing: Consumption
at Norton Simon Museum + The Institute for Art and Olfaction
August 6, 2023
Join Saskia and Maite as they examine two paintings in the Norton Simon Museum’s special exhibition All Consuming: Art and the Essence of Food.
Works:
Fête Champêtre: The Picnic (Le Pique-nique)
Jacques de Lajoue (1868 – 1761)
Interior with Monks
Alessandro Magnasco (1667–1749)
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Session 1 – Sensing: Still Life
at Norton Simon Museum + The Institute for Art and Olfaction
July 23, 2022
Works:
Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose
1633, by Francisco de Zurbarán (Spanish, 1598-1664)
oil on canvas
Still Life with Cherries, Strawberries and Gooseberries
1630, Louise Moillon (French, 1610-1696)
oil on panel
ABOUT MAITE
As the founder of ArtBites, Maite Gomez-Rejón has dedicated her career to exploring the nexus of art and culinary history through lectures, cooking classes, and tastings in museums and universities across the country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum. She has taught art history at the college level and has worked as a private chef and in restaurant kitchens in France and Mexico. Maite has been a guest on the Today Show, featured in Food & Wine and Hyperallergic, and interviewed on KCRW’s Good Food and the BBC’s The Food Programme. Her writings have appeared in Life & Thyme, Gastro Obscura and the Oxford Encyclopedia of Latin American History among other publications. She co-hosts Hungry for History on iHeart Radio’s My Cultura Podcast Network. Maite has a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Grande Diplome from the French Culinary Institute in New York City.
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ABOUT SASKIA
In 2012, Saskia Wilson-Brown’s interest in multivalent arts practices led her to create The Institute for Art and Olfaction (IAO), a non-profit devoted to access and experimentation in perfumery. In 2013, she launched the Art and Olfaction Awards, an international awards mechanism for independent perfumers, and in 2018 she launched Open Sourcing Smell Culture, an initiative devoted to open source principles in perfumery. In 2019 and early 2020 she served as a visiting lecturer at the Royal College of Art in London, and in 2020 and 2022 was a Ballen Scholar at New Mexico Highlands University. In addition to overseeing the IAO, her current projects include a radio show and podcast called Perfume on the Radio for Lookout FM (LA), and pursuing a PhD exploring the historic and contemporary relationship between perfume, access and power at University College Dublin.