/7S/ is an exhibition that contemplates Nobi Shioya's ongoing reconciliation of identity issues of discipline and decorum, faith and distrust, cynicism and admiration framed in contemporary art; it is also a reflection of an evolving asymptotic approach to formlessness. This strategy tracks the trajectory of an artistic practice grounded in the language of sculpture and the material/immaterial divide, with the subsequent interrogation of that language, the eventual reduction and erasure of structures, while invoking issues of location and acceding to the volumetric properties of a scent. The installation is the result of artful matching of seven perfumers with the tasks of producing scents each associated with one of The Seven Deadly Sins: Pride, Envy, Anger, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, and Lust. The work is framed within a "skeletal presence," a minimalist setting of clamps, flasks, liquids, and signage, while structure is expressed through elegant paintings depicting the computer language notation of slashes and abbreviations to designate branching organizational pathways. We are left with molecules, olfactory information impacting the limbic system, so that the experience ultimately occurs within the memory centers of the brain itself, while the data about the individual fragrances is sequestered in cyberspace, accessed only through a computer by pathways graphically encoded in the paintings.

Koan-Jeff Baysa
Thematic Curator

/7S/ is the 5th Olfactory Art Project Nobi Shioya asked me to participate. Each project (Sugar Mountain, Ryoanji Pieta, A•UN, Fear) was a rare opportunity for me to work with the perfumers on real "Life" scents, free of constraints and limitations, and entirely focused on S's challenging and powerful concepts and directions. A scent that is not related to the world of beauty but rather to the world of the unconscious. A possibility to open the door to strong, dark and bad smells but also to rediscover the simple smells of our life like sugar (Ryoanji Pieta) or sperm (A•UN). /7S/ gives total freedom to the perfumers as they can expose much more of themselves. I hope the audience will be intrigued by each olfactory creation and that the power of smell will engrave this show in their memory forever.

Veronique Ferval
Olfactive Curator