NOVA AWARDS SHOW
15th October 2014 - Stella Mc Cartney showroom
3 Olaf Street, W11 4BE, London
C'est parmi l'ensemble des travaux de presque un millier de diplômés de la Central Saint Martins School, répartis dans 24 disciplines différentes, de l'art à la mode, que le jury a sélectionné, non sans difficulté, 13 finalistes.
NOVA JURY
J'aurai le plaisir de remontrer en partie ma nouvelle série, The Scent of Imaginary Beings.
Boris approaches art through smell by exploiting the olfactory system. His work questions the relationship between the real and the symbolic. It serves as an invitation to articulate the multiple facets of people’s identities, highlighting their ambiguities in order to better understand themselves.
Inspired by short story writers such as J.L. Borges, R.Brautigan and B.Vian, he has created a body of work The Scent of Imaginary Beings, that act as a collection of short stories in which Homo Sapiens Sapiens interact with Homo Fictus under the command of a Homo Ideologicus, chapter by chapter, artwork by artwork.
His work consists of many elements; the narrative is not linear, but subject potentially to many interpretations. One could start with The Reluctant? (35 pages of Kenneth Grahame's tale, submersed in oil in glass jars with a touch of Dragon's breath smell). This tells the story of a dragon who does not want to kill humans. Instead he dreams of becoming a poet. Sadly, dream is lost and his destiny is sealed; he is compelled to kill the knight who fears him. Boris does not want us to feel fear or run away. The dragon’s breath smell stinks a bit but it will not kill us. We must trust the childhood compulsion that pushes us into opening the jars and smelling them anyway.
Then one can scratch and sniff The Search For One’s Own Island – Deep Blue Version? ("scratch and sniff" silkscreen printed map impregnated with the smell of the sea) and maybe dream about being the new Robinson Crusoe. The shape of an island is cut into the middle of the map. It reveals the texture of what lies behind; which becomes by default the texture of this island. This island is physically absent and yet its sense clearly evoked, an evocation that is personal to every one of us. The exoticism of the smell takes us there.
Higher on the wall, we can behold The Haunted Hunted Deer ? (glass jar, skull and smell of the beast) and the pungent, powerful smell might wake up the beast that roams our own nightmares.
Be careful. Do not step back without looking. You might hurt the poor goldfish. The Goldfish Who Dreams of Being a Shark (?goldfish, fishbowl, tap water and smell of ocean) sits on the floor. Even if the fish does not expect to be a Disney movie star, he still wants to reverse the food chain. His owner does not want to hurt him but nor does he wish to destroy the goldfish’s dream. So salt is not added to the water; only the fragrance of the ocean.
Nearby, on the floor, you will find the leftovers of The Kid Who Still Believes in Revolution – October 2014? (slingshot and balloons filled with bits of firecrackers + a collection of makeshift ammunition). It seems that revolutionary desire has been shot down, just like the balloons. No more “Bang-Bang!” “No Future!” But we might still worry about the society we build for our kids because they will grow up preserving the impulse.
Now look up. On the ceiling, The One Who Wants to Fill the Gaps – Nova Award Version? (compass and balloons filled with helium odorized by ozone's odour) whose journey North you might interpret as an sweet gesture, fighting global warning.
A photograph of The One Who Sets Himself Up as a Centaur (?wood, perfume "cuir de Centaure" and aftershave Scorpion) and The One Who Feels Like a Fish in the Water ? (wood, water, mist makers and perfumes "Sirène pressée" and Dior "J'adore") is to be seen on the wall. We might wonder about the place of myth in the representation of our bodies and our sexual expectations. Nowadays, Fitness First is the dogma - we all want to be appealing - but as the smells reminds us, the reality of a myth is not as beautiful as the representation. The reality of the animal might be overwhelming and could even be repulsive.
On the left, you will find the olfactory portrait of Jérôme (inkjet print on Dibond). Presenting all of the cosmetics that Jérôme uses everyday; everything he adds to his body to add to the definition of his body. Everything is there, but not the body itself.
Finally, The Three Graces Straight from the Cask (?three flasks of Scottish whisky and shared tasting) that should be interpreted as a means to converse more easily with Boris.
These works all deal with the fantasy of breaking free from our present condition; to form a new environment that we want to believe in and to live in. Using what one could define as “narrative representations” Boris argues that any real change starts with changes borne of the imagination and symbolism.
Boris is striving to produce micro-utopias. Utopia implies distance and Boris shows us that this distance is crucial. We need critical distance from the past and a tantalising distance to the future. This duality of distances stretches our present into a dual movement, full of tensions, ambiguities and probably some paradoxes. For Boris, the job of art is to represent this dual perspective.
The use of smell gives one a highly unusual representation of distance. Smells never fit perfectly with our cognitive representations of our own experiences. They are very difficult to grasp but still they make us react. Our social constructions are challenged by smell. The dissonance this generates is clearly expressed in how the public typically reacts to Boris’ art. Boris understands the dissonance they feel. He plays with it. He is trying to make us share our intimate feelings and experiences. He subtly tries to set up for us situations that force us to articulate our individual experience.
However, Boris accepts the existence of an inherent failure in his work. We will never succeed in entirely bridging the gap between the present and Utopia, between the self and the other. But by invoking a degree of humour and poetry in his work, he breaks the news of this harsh reality gently.
Charlotte Rivers for NOVA AWARD
