Top, Haus-Rucker-Co., Oase No. 7, documenta 5 exhibition, Fridericianum museum, Kassel, West Germany, 1972. Via. Bottom, Robert Irwin, Nine Spaces, Nine Trees, Public Safety Building Plaza, Seattle, Washington, 1983. Via.
Oasis no. 7 was a temporary architectural intervention contributed by the experimental Austrian collective Haus-Rucker-Co to the fifth edition of Documenta, an exhibition of contemporary art in Kassel, Germany. Conceived as “an emergency exit leading people to another realm,” the work consisted of a translucent, inflatable orb precariously protruding from the classical eighteenth-century facade of Kassel’s Fridericianum. Theatrically staged as an artificial oasis, the orb contained two plastic palm trees, a hammock, and a red flag. Via.
Irwin subdivided the approximately square plaza into nine smaller squares, each 22 by 22 feet, and placed at the center of each a square concrete planter which also provides seating. In each planter is a flowering purple plum tree—small, delicate, with one-lobed, dark red leaves. Each “room” is surrounded by a fence of small-mesh chain link, coated with blue vinyl; the fence rises to a height of 16 feet, where it is topped with lights, one pointed at each of the nine trees. The rooms open into one another through large doorways in the fence. Via.
When what were believed to be Mary Magdalen's remains were discovered in 1279, there was "a strong fragrance, as if a storehouse of sweet spices had been opened." As The Golden Legend explained, "so powerful an odor of sweetness pervaded the church that for seven days all those who entered noticed it."s The corpse of a fourteenth-century Italian nun, "despite its being plentifully covered in flesh and fat, and though it had not been embalmed," similarly "exhaled a gentle odour, a heavenly fragrance." The grave of another saintly woman exuded "a supernatural fragrance so sweetly aromatic and unlike any earthly odours," and this fragrance grew stronger "at times when Holy Mass was celebrated, almost in token of her pleasure at the entreaties addressed to her." From the tomb of St. Dominic, too, "an odor of such sweetness came forth that it might have come from a storeroom of perfumes rather than from a tomb," and following her death in 1607 the corpse of Maria Maddalena de'Pazzi evidenced a popular variation on the theme when it leaked fragrant miraculous oils.' Teresa of Avila's corpse was examined nine times (the last in 1760, 178 years after her death) and evidenced always an exception state of preservation, even though the clothing was completely decomposed. Immediately after her death, the floral "aroma that her holy corpse gave off was so strong" that "it spread through the whole house." In the Carmelite convent of Alba de Tormes, where her transverberated heart is enshrined, the reliquary glass occasionally breaks and the sweet odor of sanctity is still released.'
Frank Graziano, from Wounds of Love: The Mystical Marriage of Saint Rose of Lima, 2003. Via.
