Weisman Art Museum (WAM) presents The Other Four as its first new exhibition of 2024, on view from February 9 – May 19, 2024. The opening event, on Thursday, February 8, includes an early look at the show, plus music, small bites, photo booth, and a cash bar. Register for tickets now!

The Other Four assembles a varied display of 16 multimedia works by 21 contemporary artists that forefront the senses of smell, taste, touch, and sound. Exploring the richness of the human experience, the exhibition engages audiences primarily through nonvisual – the other four – senses. These works center our attention on these four, often upstaged, senses through disparate means, including technology, performance, interaction, and experimental practice. In so doing, the artists’ works point to the vast realm of physical and emotional experience that vision alone cannot access or probe. 

Curated by Twin Cities-based artist and independent curator John Schuerman, The Other Four captures the spirit of regionally-based avant-garde artists who experiment with and produce sensory art. 

Scheurman posits: “Most of us are so accustomed to the dominance of our sense of sight that we often forget it is operating … sometimes causing one to drift off into thought and miss the moment.” 

The artworks in this exhibition invite visitors to become physically involved, to use their whole bodies to experience the show. There’s a spirit of play at work, liberating visitors from prior conditioning in museum etiquette that keeps the viewer and work at a remove from one another. Rather, The Other Four invites visitors to tap other, more intimate modes of engagement — to touch the works, to taste or smell them, to lean into them and listen closely. And along the way, one is invited to consciously appreciate the various ways these multisensory encounters spark, mingle, and recombine, leaving us with a deeper understanding of the rich differences and affinities inherent in the wide range of human perception and experience. 

Featured artists include: Katayoun Amjadi, David Andree, Pedram Baldari, David Bartley, Emma Beatrez, David Bowen, Kate Casanova, Lucy Derickson, Rodrigo Cádiz, Wendy Fernstrum, Alison Hiltner, Nooshin Hakim Javadi, Christopher Jones, Yevgeniya Kaganovich, Lee Noble, Ken Steinbach, Liza Sylvestre, Rotem Tamir, Jacqueline Ultan, and Aliya Ultan.

Exhibition-Related Events

OPENING PARTY
Thursday, February 8, 2024
7 – 10 p.m. (Doors at 6:30)
TICKETS: $20 General Admission ($10/WAM Members, UMN Faculty & Staff) 
FREE for students
A party to celebrate the opening of WAM’s spring exhibition, The Other Four. The evening includes an early look at the show, as well as small bites by Kafe 421, a fun photo booth, cash bar, and music by DJ McShellen.

ARTIST ROUNDTABLE (Zoom)
Thursday, April 3, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
TICKETS: Pay as you wish (including free, if you like)
Featured artists: Christopher Jones, Liza Sylvestre, and Rotem Tamir. Moderator: Dr. Jessica Cooley
An artist roundtable conversation on the ways in which The Other Four promotes intimacy between audience and artwork through touch, breath, and close listening. Panelists will explore disability justice, phenomenology, and meaning-making beyond visual aesthetics. Moderated by Dr. Jessica Cooley. 

Image description: [Top to bottom] Yevgeniya Kaganovich, red-hand-piece 3 from the Solidified Gesture Specimen/Hypered Experience Device series, 2002, latex, steel pins, food coloring, stainless steel, loan from the artist; Wendy Fernstrum, Common Scents (detail), 2023, mixed media, loan from the artist. Alison Hiltner, Tethers, 2020. Silicone, various mechanical components including a transplant carrier, sensors, pumps, rubber tubing, stainless steel, and other components found and made. Lent by the artist. Photo by Madeeha Lamoreaux, courtesy of Weisman Art Museum; Kate Casanova, Sensory Seat for Porous Beings, 2023. Wood, electronic components, silicone casts of various textural forms, audio of an ant colony, a cat purring, and clay dissolving in water. Lent by the artist. Photos by Rik Sferra, courtesy of Weisman Art Museum.