Smelling Tree (2014)

Carsten Höller’s homage to Cedric Price consists of a young potted apple tree, which is irrigated with a water solution containing analogues of human smells. The olfactory liquid is a free interpretation of the smell of Cedric Price. The molecules are taken up by the tree through its roots and subsequently spread through its leaves, flowers and fruit. The smelling tree refers to Price’s huge but almost invisible (in terms of constructed edifices) influence in the world of architecture. Cedric Price envisioned malleable materials to replace rigid structures, such as vapour and optical barriers. He imagined the same space to be used flexibly for several activities, for instance work and play, just as he anchored the value of objects in their relational capacities of how they can acquire various meanings when confronted with other artefacts. Price claimed that “doubt, delight, and change” were defining principles for his work, similar to Höller’s situations and experiments that think through and test logics that are different to the one we are used to. In this spatial thinking, directions and movements, rather than steel and concrete, generate forms, and unpredictability is a defining principle.

by Stefanie Hessler