Amanda Christine Harth: The Sacred Place of the Most High
@ Design Museum of Chicago
72 E. Randolph Street, Chicago, IL 60601
Opening Friday, September 25th, at 6PM
On view through Friday, October 23rd
NAOMI Projects and the Design Museum of Chicago present The Sacred Place of the Most High, a solo exhibition by scent designer and textile artist Amanda Christine Harth, curated by Justin Dwaun Redding.
Anchored in Psalm 91:1 and its promise of a secret place, the exhibition treats fragrance as one of the oldest tools humans have for reaching toward the sacred. Harth has built three altars in the shape of fragrance organs, holding the woods, resins, and botanicals people have burned and offered across faiths for thousands of years. Cedar, hyssop, frankincense, oud, copal, sage. Indigo cloth dyed by hand by the artist. Ceramic vessels cradling custom incense. Moving through all of it is a scent Harth composed for this room alone.
The work begins in autobiography, in the scents of Harth’s own upbringing on the South Side of Chicago and the church she was raised inside. Before entering, visitors wash their hands at a wooden basin. Inside, they are invited to come close and smell.
The exhibition marks Harth’s second collaboration with NAOMI Projects, following Beyond Blue (2023).
Opening reception Friday, September 25, 6 to 9 PM. RSVP: https://posh.vip/f/e213f
On view daily, 10 AM to 5 PM, through October 23. Free admission.
Note: incense is burned in the gallery and a custom fragrance runs continuously throughout the run.
Altars by Jordan Campbell of alt_. Ceramic vessels by Mack Baker. Custom incense by Hard Broom.
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Tags: Amanda Christine Harth, Design Museum of Chicago, Loop, Naomi Projects, The Sacred Place of the Most High
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