Olfactory Installation — taffeta rose pillow, concrete thorn, perfume.
Commissioned to create a scent that will enhance the locus with an olfactory presence, I let myself dive through the curatorial concept and unlearn the walked paths, formulating a phantom trace of something visceral, transcendent, unsettling, yet familiar, rooted in our nostalgia.
There’s a tension between the soft, dainty pleasant olfactory presence of rose and the visceral, unsettling undertone of blood and thorns. These two central notes are woven together in a maze of complementary or contrasting scents. Supra Rosa is a surreal olfactory landscape— various green leaves mingling with dust, hints of concrete or metal, the smell of decaying wood and traces of oceanic iodine.
You sense the tender presence of blooming roses, but next to it lie salty, metallic, iodine, decay notes whispering unknown words — an unsettling sensation of sweet deconstruction, dissolution, distortion, bleeding. Your mind searches for something familiar to hold onto, some safe ground — but it never quite appears. Instead, you’re left in a blurred, liminal olfactory space, where perception feels fragmented and strange, suspended in a haze of odd cognitive impressions.
\ Over the Rose \ supra rosa \
‘In intuition realms, ideas travel fast, with no concrete body or system to lock them into existence. While trying to imagine the scent of blood, I sensed that the rose oxide molecule can add value to the accord, and then many thorns made their way into this surreal landscape, emerging from blood vessels like an alchemical token needed to join this new Renaissance. Blood flows in metallic streams, rendering multiple dimensions, as we, the mortals, move through space, dancing, loving, running, crawling. At any moment, the thorns may prickle your skin, revealing a glimpse of the inner satellites that endlessly orbit within you. Can you smell the flowers flowing through your veins? Are you tempted to sit on that petal pillow and bleed a fragrant passing through the Noli Sapere maze?’
