Artists > 2012: Flights of Fancy > Clara Ursitti

Work

Clara Ursitti looked to the banal for inspiration at Tatton. Rolls Royce is a local company with a reputation built on luxury, opulence and exclusivity. Ursitti’s Ghost offered up the Rolls Royce experience to the masses with a free-to-use taxi service, complete with chauffeur. Moving from the Knutsford entrance to the Mansion, the work (sensually at least) re-presented the experience of a country drive in a Silver Cloud, but the car employed was the much-derided Nissan Sunny. Ursitti here worked with scent and sound to suggest experience: the invasive nature of foreign smells; the evocation of solidity in a vehicle that had just scraped through its last MOT. The work had an accompanying soundtrack of a ticking clock and each passenger, on leaving the car, was given a scented card in commemoration of their journey.

Biography

Clara Ursitti has been working with fragrance since the early 1990s to create pungent installations that delve into the social and psychological aspects of scent. She is interested in non-verbal (chemical) communication and memory. Her work has been exhibited throughout Europe, North America and Australia including: Gothenburg Biennale, Sweden; ICA, London; Tramway, Glasgow and Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. She was awarded an International Artist Studio Programme in Sweden ( IASPIS ) residency in 2004 and was the Arts Council of England Helen Chadwick Fellow 2006 - 2007. She recently received the Scottish Arts Council Artist Award, 2008 - 2009.