Art While I was unable to visit the Venice Biennale, I have scoured the internet, badgered friends who attended, and consulted various resources to unearth the one work that most directly pointed to the olfactory sense and olfactory material. Many of works included in the exhibition had tangential, suggestive and material aspects of scent. Simone Leigh’s extraordinary re-imagining of the US pavilion is called Sovereignty. Culturally potent materials like cowrie shells, plantains, raffia, and tobacco leaves have natural olfactory tones …
Tag: Art
Olfactory Report 3: The lure, the cure, the smells of the forest * Catherine Haley Epstein
Several years ago I made a scent about forgetting: forgetting your ego and the glorious connection we feel to people and things when we do this. Most scent is evocative and reminds us of things past. How about scents that explore the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind? What does forgetting smell like? My conclusion: forgetting smells like the forest. I drew the connection after years of reading the G-rated, PG-rated then grizzly versions of fairy tales, where everything transformative happens …
Waves & Dust & Sparks * Soundscapes + Poetic Text Descriptions * Andy Slater
Memory Waves (Anchor Beach, Woodmont, Connecticut) Before storms the water rises and the trees bend. The dry sand spreads as if fingers forged branches. From the spot I watch and listen from the air is rich. Sea salt spray fro, the east and honeysuckle from the west. The helicopters spin from the trees as the wind picks up and launches domestic smells in arbitrary directions. The synthetic lemon fresh from a laundry room exhaust ,multiple households’ supper, and a rusty …
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Five Visual Poems of Scent by J.I. Kleinberg
These visual poems by J.I. Kleinberg are from an ongoing series of collages (2000+) built from phrases created unintentionally through the accident of magazine page design. Each contiguous fragment of text (transcribed as a poetic line) is entirely removed from its original sense and syntax. The text is not altered (except for the occasional deletion of prefixes, suffixes, or punctuation) and includes no attributable phrases. The lines of each collage are, in most cases, sourced from different magazines. —About J.I. …
Nose Dive by Catherine Haley Epstein * Book Review
Nose Dive: A book for the curious seeking creative potential through their noses (2019) by Catherine Haley Epstein is an adventure for your nose in art, anthropology, and science. You will be amazed at how much you didn’t know about this oft-neglected sense. Epstein is an artist, award-winning writer, designer and curator. She wrote a great review of Milan’s Esxence for us earlier this year, and I was delighted to receive her book available for purchase HERE! As Epstein explains …
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The Marvelous, Unplanned Life of Mandy Aftel, Author, Perfumer, and Museum-Creator * Interview
“Everything I’ve done, I’ve just followed what I’ve been interested in. I’ve never had a plan, I have had no plan about any of this.” – Mandy Aftel Mandy Aftel started making natural perfumes almost 30 years ago. Her passion and artistry have won Aftelier Perfumes many awards and accolades. She’s been featured in countless magazines and blogs from Vogue to Forbes, Now Smell This to Bon Appetit. In 2003, Mandy launched Chef’s Essence, which supplies natural flavor oils and …
Smell and Taste Reading List * Nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry
*This is a dynamic, ever-expanding list of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that engages with smell and taste. In the spirit of mixing disciplines, genres and diverse voices, the list is simply organized in alphabetical order by author. If you don’t see something you think we would like, please let us know in the comments below or by emailing us at info@aromaticapoetica.com* *A* Abood, Maureen. Rose Water and Orange Blossoms: Fresh and Classic Recipes from my Lebanese Kitchen. Ackermann, Diane. …
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“An Artist’s Introduction to the Fine-Fragrance Landscape of Esxence” by Catherine Haley Epstein
I am a conceptual artist who began using scent in my practice ten years ago. By conceptual artist, I mean that I use any medium whatsoever to engage in questions I am asking in the studio. Alongside paintings, drawings and sculpture I use scent, words and photographs to obsessively make sense of things. Last fall, I was asked to be on a panel about scent and writing at the Society of Illustrators in New York City. Someone in the audience …
Dorian Gray’s Psychology of Perfumes, from the 1891 novel by Oscar Wilde, Scent Aesthete Extraordinaire
“The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn,” is the opening sentence of The Picture of Dorian Gray, so you know Oscar Wilde knew how to use scent to set a scene! The gothic novel was decried as indecent, because of its current of …
Two Poems on Perfume by Anne Gorrick + Scented Paintings
these two perfume-inspired poems by Anne Gorrick are by turns intricate and expansive, concrete and ephemeral. They sparkle with sensual language, and shimmer with celestial spirit. “Perfume is invisible. Many people roll their eyes at it, as if you’re asking them to believe in ghosts. There is a flaky, new age, intellectually negligent perception that surrounds scent,” Gorrick explains in an interview at Galatea Resurrects. “But it’s an entire realm that is completely Proustian, sometimes plangent, dimensional, symphonic.” At Aromatica …
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