Dee's Sniffer

Artist / Maker Ingrid Lilligren (American, 1949)

Date2001

MediumStoneware, porcelain, sent sachet, horse hair

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineGift of Brent Holland. In the permanent collection, Brunnier Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberUM2015.61

Status

Not on view

Collections

CultureAmerican

Label TextFrom the University Museums Collections Handbook, vol. 2, 2025: Dee’s Sniffer is a dynamic sculpture that relies on multiple materials to engage a viewer’s senses and enhance their experience. The artist, ceramicist and university professor at Iowa State University Ingrid Lilligren, created the sculpture in honor of her own friend Dee, making a highly personal tribute to a unique person in her life. Throughout her career, Lilligren has created sculptures that work to engage multiple senses, enlivening the objects in new and exciting ways. She continues to incorporate Braille in her ceramics to allow more accessibility to those who are blind, but also to play with ideas of touch and language, deepening the meaning of her works of art. In Dee’s Sniffer, Lilligren has integrated differing materials to encourage closer looking, such as the blue porcelain nubbins on the body and the wooden horsehair brushes that act as a sort of mohawk hair style. Technically interesting, but also delightful. Lilligren also made the “nose” of the sculpture the height of her petite friend and hides a sachet of scented oil within the opening. As viewers get closer their sense of smell is activated and as they seek the source, they are made to look closer and more deeply engage with the work of art. Lilligren exemplifies how ceramics and contemporary craft materials are far from static but rather exist at the nexus of fine art and design.

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