Another month, another great opportunity to extend my Perfume as Practice body of work beyond portraiture.
Notes of the Bard combines fragrance, poetry, colour and photography in order to highlight how each of those disciplines can act as a foundation for creative processes. It also attempts to elevate perfumery as a viable medium for communication, as when placed within the context of other creative disciplines a capacity for interpretation, investigation and inspiration is revealed: When removed from its preconceived context, perfumery can readily be regarded as a tool for creative action.
The idea of placing 4 disciplines together emerged through the idea of the colour wheel; I have one pinned up in my studio, alongside a light wheel and a fragrance wheel, and after a little research I also came across a poetry wheel. The fact that each discipline could be quantified and measured based on a set of rules intrigued me, as it revels the similarities between the application and treatment of each discipline – including perfumery.
Innocuous beginnings, maybe. But of course the ramifications for providing alternative modes of thinking about fragrance extends beyond the face value of a box with some stuff inside; it instigates change, provides agency and can empower sets of communities in a manner that forges new connections. In this instance it smells pretty nice too.
Notes of the Bard will be displayed as part of a group exhibition entitled TalkEx17, at St. Ann’s Building, Rotherham, from 3rd – 7th April.