Public Artwork
Incantation: The Senses
Location:
The Capital Arts Building, 10540 107 Street, Edmonton, AB, T5H 2Y6, Canada
See map: Google Maps
Artwork creator(s):
Kidd, Jane
Text author(s):
Kidd, Jane
Installation year:
2006
Remarks on location:
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Arts Branch of Alberta Community Development
Description:
The tapestry is conceived in two sections. The smaller panel functions as an introduction, somewhat like a decorative title page. The outer border pattern is ornate and lyrical, surrounding an interior field. A chant-like sequence of words is woven across the pattern of the interior field, representing a more physical, less romantic aspect of the senses. The large panel is dominated by five images that allude to the five senses.
Text of the artwork:
PLEASURE BITTTER CARESS
SILENT VIBRATION GLARE
SWEET FETID SALTY BLUR
TICKLE SOUR ROUGH
BURN MOIST STING SOFT
CLEAR RANCID SMOOTH
ICY PERFUMED LOUD ITCH
STROKE MELODIOUS
PINCH GRITTY DREAD PAIN
FRAGRANT JUICY FLUTTER
NUZZLE PUTRID RESONATE
Text theme:
The text is woven with an auxiliary thread and is slightly raised, Braille-like, off the surface of the tapestry. The text continues around the perimeter of the larger panel. Again, it is just readable depending on lighting, angle and distance.
Artwork theme:
Represents the somatic and the symbolic to create a visual and poetic celebration of the human senses and of the creative experience that links sensation, imagination and interpretation.
Dimensions:
Height:
1.67m
Width:
4m Note(s):
My hope is that the images will resonate differently for each viewer and that they will suggest the interconnection between the senses and how we experience them. I have contrasted the richness of the five symbols and surrounding area with a stark black, white and grey frieze of visceral images of the human body and its interior workings. These images are ordered and coded like specimens for study, referencing the impulse to analyze, understand and control all aspects of the human experience and sensuality.
-Jane Kidd, Conservation with the artist, July 2009.
Artist's biography:
Jane Kidd
Owner(s):
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Arts Branch of Alberta Community Development 
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