I bumped into this mini-installation by Rene Magritte at the surrealist exhibition at Centre Pompidou a few days ago.
I knew Magritte loved to play with meanings and visuals.
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I’ve been using Magritte’s “This is not a pipe” for ages to harass friends (and an ocassional foe) with the question, “What is wrong here?” The answer, in the majority of cases, was “the text is wrong”.
This is a fast proof that the visual channel is the boss for most of us.
Thinking about letters and meanings kicks in later, after the brain has already registered and catalogued the image as a “pipe”. So when the rational brain finally catches up, it decides that there’s something wrong with the letters. The rational meaning of the inscription comes to the peace conference well after the perfect image of a pipe has climbed up the stage and set out its own agenda.
But in the Cheese installation, Magritte runs a different game.
It is an American Football match between our visual mind, and its smell-detection department, with the rational brain being the referee.
We know this cheese is painted, and Magritte didn’t want us to think otherwise.
We also know that the glass cover is required to contain the pungent smell some types of cheese are known to emit. It is also true that some kinds of cheese are so mossy with mould they’d crawl away if not restrained.
And so our brain attributes smell to the painting inside: the mind is trying to make sense out of the visual stimulus and is involuntarily searching for an explanation for the glass cover.
What I love about the Cheese installation is that it gives spectators the smell of cheese in the absence of a single cheese molecule.
It is so simple, it seems anyone could do it.
Great art is often like that: “obvious”, but only after you’ve seen it.
Two previous posts on this exhibition, well worth reading: “devil’s hand and titties”, and “penises all around”.
Standing Ovation, Seated 
I saw Magritte’s recent retrospective at MoMA. Wonderful things that man was able to manipulate. Great article, please take a moment to read my recent essay on NYC Performance Art: http://wp.me/p2T9h4-bt
Reblogged this on Unprimed Canvas and commented:
“This is not a blog post.”
Now THIS is clever. I am gonna go get some suluguni now.
Great post! I had never come across Magritte’s Cheese installation before and I think it deserves the fame of the Pipe painting. Thinking of glass containers, I would love to know if you smell anything here – http://boryanakorcheva.com/work/#jp-carousel-1187
On another subject – I am off to Miami for the opening of my first exhibition there. This piece will be a part of it. Overjoyed and so full of myself, I can’t stand me!
First of all, congratulations with the show!
I think a lot of your self-portrait. As well as about the paintings. Yet, I find it very difficult to write about them. They send out a powerful surge of emotions for me, perhaps, that’s the reason I hesitate to put down in words what I feel. Somehow, it gets very personal along the way. So, I am sorry I haven’t said anything about them. The self-portrait, with its bottled up – but escaping emotion – is an amazing piece. I really think so, and I totally enjoy the simplicity of it, and the materials from which it is made. It rhymes with Magriitte’s cheese, but if latter plays with senses, the former is battling emotions. It is very difficult to keep aloof and dispassionately write about it.
Congratulations, again!
Oh yeah. I can smell it.
A friend of mine felt compelled to have some cheese & wine, upon reading it )
Now that’s a grand idea
This was a really entertaining post! I loved it.
Happy to hear that! Cheers ))