Meg Webster’s sculptures envelop the senses like lingering hay or damp earth—no surprise, since they arise from “soil, sand, and salt,” in the words of the DIA Art Foundation, the long-time custodian of her work. Over the years, visitors have been invited to step into the shadows of her earthworks, which are installed in the form of mounds and columns along the gallery floor.
Beginning March 19, these encounters will be bottled and available year-round, thanks to a collaboration between Webster, DIA and Comme des Garçons, which produces the artist’s first signature fragrance. According to the sample sent to art news The smell in the office is neutral, woody, and slow-diffusing—with a belated spark of musky, like a fallen branch beneath your feet, breaking the silence. The fragrance is presented in a polished silver tetrahedron (triangular pyramid) box, a shape common in Webster’s visual vocabulary.
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“I make sculptural pieces from natural materials, forming main geometric shapes so that they can be directly perceived by the body. The making process should be visible,” Webster told The Art News. “The fragrances we created in partnership with DIA strive to be a staple – like the air after a spring rain or a walk deep in the forest.”
sometimes hydrated polished tetrahedron
Collectors of Comme des Garçons, the Japanese fashion brand founded by Rei Kawakubo in 1969, are known for their striking geometric structures—sometimes composed of boldly colliding fragments, with each piece visibly stopping. In recent years, the brand has branched out into arts and culture, having previously collaborated on fragrances with the Serpentine Gallery and Tracey Emin (“fresh, light, yet incredibly complex”); lifestyle magazine Monocle; and renowned composer Max Richter, whose scents evoke graphite, piano soundboards, cedar and violins, among others.
To commemorate its collaboration with Webster, Comme des Garçons installed the artist’s work in its West 22nd Street store in Manhattan (across from DIA’s Chelsea branch). Appropriate title Copper salt II (2017), this piece features a single sheet of copper curled into a cylinder and filled with coarse rock salt. These two seemingly disparate materials form a smooth, symbiotic form: the salt relies on copper for its shape, while the copper serves the gentle purpose of holding the salt. Another of Webster’s salt cylinders is on display at DIA Beacon, uniting the two spaces through an exploration of voids, volumes and elemental materials.
Webster’s representative Paula Cooper tells us art news That”Copper salt II is an exemplary sculpture among Webster’s famous works, based on shaping natural materials into simple geometric shapes. “
