Ruminant Dance, Instructions Towards
by Minetta Rogers
December 6 – 29, 2024
Opening: Friday Dec. 6, 6-8pm
The IAO Gallery is pleased to host Ruminant Dance, Instructions Towards, by Minetta Rogers.
“I had to escape from her; and the delightful taste of oyster in my mouth, my new-born gourmandise, sent me toward an unknown rather than a known sensuality.”
– The First Oyster (MFK Fisher, 1924)
This exhibition is a multisensory installation in conversation with M.F.K Fisher’s 1924 essay,
The First Oyster. Now in its centennial year, The First Oyster is an essay about learning to
cultivate desire and taste, set in the author’s memory of eating her first raw oyster during a
Christmas dance at her all-girls school.
Ruminant Dance, Instructions Towards includes a scale diagram of the Follower’s steps to the
Hesitation Waltz, a waltz from the 1920s; scented jellies “on the shell”; one hundred scented
corsages; and one hundred scented dancecards with epigrams from both the essay and
related works.
The four scented jellies trace the stages of how desire becomes action becomes memory,
taking olfactory cues from The First Oyster.
Image credit: Minetta Rogers
LIST OF WORKS
LEFT WINDOW
Corsages
felt, wire, string, scent
RIGHT WINDOW
Dance cards
paper, velvet, paint, string, scent
IN GALLERY
Hesitation Waltz (Follower Steps)
felt, scent
Jellies “on the shell”
gelatin, corn syrup, scent (listed R-L)
i. flush
a scent of anticipation and excitement
woody gourmand: pine, fir, honeyaccord
ii. florid
a scent of overwrought emotion, with a tinge of fear
spicy earthy: clove, blackcurrant, oakmoss, body accord
iii. flagrante
a scent of pure sensation
herbal marine: chamomile, seaweed, ocean accord
iv. flattened
a scent of a fading memory, revised and composed
amber aldehydic: wine barrel, aldehydes, amber accord
ON TABLE
Books, oysters, fine fragrance, journal
About Minetta Rogers
Minetta Rogers is an artist whose work is focused on the small, the disposable, and the everyday. She studied architecture at California College of the Arts and worked in the industry and its adjacent industries (architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, production design) in a former life. She currently works as the Director of Programs at the Institute for Art and Olfaction.
Minetta Rogers lives in Los Angeles.