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<\/a>Ophelia in Exile<\/em> launched in October 2021 and will run until the end of February 2022 at the Czech Centre\u2019s Vitr\u00ednka Gallery<\/a>, in London, England. It\u2019s the product of a collaboration with Tangible Territory Journal<\/a><\/em>, of which Stehl\u00edkov\u00e1 is editor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The exhibition proposes that Ophelia, the literary character, has been quarantined in an unknown location for an unknown period of time. Though she\u2019s filled her living space with sensory remnants of nature\u2014herbs, flowers, vines\u2014her only means of engagement with the outside world is through screens. The exhibition invites you into Ophelia\u2019s living room, the location of her \u201csensory exile,\u201d as Stehl\u00edkov\u00e1 puts it. Though you won\u2019t meet Ophelia in person, you may spot her in the screens throughout the space. You can leave her notes, letters, and gifts, but if you can\u2019t make it to the exhibit, you can email Ophelia a message of support (opheliainexile@gmail.com<\/a>) or even follow her on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stehl\u00edkov\u00e1 has long been interested in the sense of touch and creating multisensory experiences. Her PhD at the Royal College of Art examined how tactility can be evoked through audio and visual means. As she finished her PhD, she began connecting with scientists studying the senses, expanding her focus to smell and taste. \u201cI like this idea of this sort of contradiction, almost\u2014how can audiovisual mediums communicate smell?\u201d Stehl\u00edkov\u00e1 explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She connected with Dr. Charles Spence, head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at the University of Oxford, who studies how the brain processes information from each of our senses to form the experiences of our daily lives. This phenomenon is not synesthesia, but rather the nuanced ways the senses interact with one another. Dr. Spence works with advertising agencies to figure out how someone might, for example, hear the taste of whiskey. Apparently, there is a level of consensus about which sounds are associated with what sort of taste, with some sounds associated with sweetness versus sourness. This is where the speedy lemon question comes up\u2014there seems to be a general agreement about the correlation between a sharpness of taste and speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The senses are also connected to emotion and memory. Stehl\u00edkov\u00e1 tells me about a sensory workshop she ran, in which she blindfolded participants and asked them to smell and touch various materials in a box\u2014sand, moss, dried lime, herbs, etc. She asked participants to write any associations the materials prompted. \u201cThey actually trigger some amazingly emotional responses in people,\u201d Stehl\u00edkov\u00e1 tells me. \u201cThere’s a lot of childhood memories that get triggered by smells and touch, especially if you take away sight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what happens when these components of our lives are lost? Enter Ophelia, who has appeared in Stehl\u00edkov\u00e1\u2019s work before, for example, drowning in a soup bowl<\/a>. In this exhibition, she serves as an alter ego for the artist, reflecting Stehl\u00edkov\u00e1\u2019s own feelings of flatness and disembodiment during quarantine as the world was reduced to screens. \u201cConnected very much is this feeling that I had during the pandemic that\u2026our rich multi-sensory world has been taken away from us,\u201d Stehl\u00edkov\u00e1 tells me. \u201cAt the time, I also launched\u2026Tangible Territory<\/em>, and I started to invite people, artists and philosophers, to reflect on this idea of what’s happening. We entered this virtual reality that’s already been happening, of course, but now it just got much more heightened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She thinks that this flattening of our lives through the increased use of technology has been happening for a while, but the pandemic has accelerated the trend. \u201cSo again, this was the idea that we are spending so much time looking into screens, now that’s the window into the world,\u201d Stehl\u00edkov\u00e1 says. It\u2019s made her appreciate non-digital experiences even more\u2014going into a physical store, the commute on a train to a film screening. She explains that she \u201calready had this sense of grief\u2026for something that’s been taken away from us. And of course, it’s better now. But still, something’s transformed.\u201d She muses, \u201cI started thinking about this idea of sensory exile, like exile from the origin of the senses, and how that would feel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With Ophelia in Exile<\/em>, Stehl\u00edkov\u00e1 hopes to capture something as it\u2019s transforming, this transition of an old reality to a new one. \u201cSo that it’s not just happening, that we actually really figure out what’s important, and what we want to lose and what we don’t want to lose\u2026basically trying to process what’s going on and think about it,\u201d Stehl\u00edkov\u00e1 explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ophelia in Exile<\/em> is a work in progress, that Stehl\u00edkov\u00e1 hopes to develop it in tandem with the ever-evolving state of the world. For example, Ophelia\u2019s living room might move to different countries, when conditions allow. \u201cBut also, maybe the meaning will shift,\u201d Stehl\u00edkov\u00e1 adds, \u201cor it will develop, depending on how the situation’s developing. I think it’s kind of an ongoing project. That’s what I want to say\u2014it’s definitely not finished. Because I think it’s still very relevant, and it will keep being relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more by Tereza Stehl\u00edkov\u00e1, visit her website<\/a>, Tangible Territory Journal<\/a><\/em>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>. Share this Post<\/p>![\"A](\"https:\/\/artthescience.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Ophelia-desk_resize-1024x768.jpg\")
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Featured image: Ophelia in Exile<\/em> (2021) by Tereza Stehl\u00edkov\u00e1, multimedia installation. Ophelia portrayed by Tereza Kamenick\u00e1. Photo by Tereza Stehl\u00edkov\u00e1.
All images courtesy of the artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n