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: Catherine Haley Epstein
Olfactory Report 9: Poetics of Scent by Catherine Haley Epstein + Poetry by Elizabeth Powell
“Poetry is the lifeblood of rebellion, revolution, and the raising of awareness.” Alice Walker April is National Poetry Month, and for the past few weeks my 10 year old has arrived home with endless haikus, acrostics, and concrete poems. Part of this equation is that he is not a fully self-conscious human and is still nimble with his words. Poetry is deceivingly simple, and one of the hardest art forms to do well. Poetry is in fact a major art …
Olfactory Report 8: Scent and Architecture * Catherine Haley Epstein
For La Biennale di Venezia’s 17th International Architecture Exhibition the curator Hashim Sarkis, Professor and Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, chose the theme “How Will We Live Together?”. Sixty nations participated to respond, where three new countries included Grenada, Iraq, and the Republic of Uzbekistan. The theme was bolstered by five sub-themes all exploring the plurality of human existence socially, politically and in nature. Among the research, the visuals, the haptic …
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Olfactory Report 7: Rhinoferocious * Catherine Haley Epstein
Rhinoferocious – a word to describe those who defend perfumery as an art Rhino-art – art for your nose Rhinographies – the study of the tendencies of a unique nose. –Words coined and inspired by scent artist, Christophe Laudamiel, included in the Odorbet. I’ve just returned from my first trip to New York City post-covid pingdemic times. A key theme for me during the week is that the handmade is extremely important right now. Human touch is lost in many …
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Olfactory Report 6: Scent as Medicine * Catherine Haley Epstein
Medicine and perfumery have their roots in nature; both started as the alchemy of plants. Why medicine has progressed beyond tinctures and extractions to pills, surgery, and radiation, while aromatherapy and perfumery have not, remains a mystery. Even though people find relief with aromatherapy interventions, it is difficult to validate and measure consistently. That said, there is plenty of historical evidence attributing emotions and feelings to scent. Scents were referred to as “depressing”, “inspiring and reviving,” as far back as …
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Olfactory Report 5: Scent as Protagonist * Catherine Haley Epstein
If you are reading this, you likely do not need convincing that indeed, scent is a protagonist in our lives, our society, and our world. We follow it everywhere, watching how it creates change and makes gorgeous metaphors for things – haunting, beautiful, and terrifying. Just as music and visual art can have an active role in changing our perceptions, so too does scent. While scent is invisible, it is intrinsically related to gender, race, politics etc.. We see it …
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The Olfactory Report 4: Aperture * CATHERINE HALEY EPSTEIN
An aperture is defined as an opening, a hole, or a gap. It is also a special space where light passes through. The perfumery landscape is historically closed and dark where everything is “hush hush”, private and exclusive where holes and gaps are carefully curated and often patched and covered. There are certain people and practices that have been invisible to the broader community, whether they are the perfumer, the farmer, or the artist in general. The work of adjusting …
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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 …
The Olfactory Report 2: Armpits, Ribaldry, and Animalic Perfumes for Your Valentine, too! * Catherine Haley Epstein
Filthy, Stinky, Sexy Sex hormones come out of our armpits. These apocrine sweat glands do what is called emotional sweating. These hormones affect our behavior and physiology. We know the armpit sex hormone begins after puberty (when we actually begin to emit a smell from our armpits), and they are also located in the areola and nipples of the breast, ear canal, eyelids, wings of the nostril, perianal region, and some parts of the external genitalia. All, one could argue, are erogenous zones. I’ve also written recently about …
The Olfactory Report 1: Smellicopters and the Smell of Old Books * Catherine Haley Epstein
Aromatica Poetica is delighted to present The Olfactory Report, a monthly column dedicated to the business of our noses. In it scent artist and writer, Catherine Haley Epstein, shares news, thought pieces, reviews and opinions from the olfactory landscape. For our first edition of this one of a kind column, she presents a round up of some of the more exciting events and initiatives of 2020. Despite it being, and continually being, a year full of isolation, dissonance and breaking …