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FRAGments List of Participating Perfumers-Artists

The list of participants at the upcoming FRAGments co-operative art show and perfume pop up shop is out!
Arabesque Aromas (Christen Schilling)
Artemisia Natural Perfume (Lisa Fong)
Ayala Moriel Parfums (Ayala Moriel)
Divine Life Perfumes (Ragna Rostad-Ruffner)
DSH Perfumes (Dawn Spencer Hurwitz)
EnVoyage Perfuems (Shelly Waddington)
Escentual Alchemy (Amanda Feeley)
MikMoi (Michael 'Mik' Coyle)
Parfums Lalun (Maggie Mahboubian)
Persephenie (Persephenie Lea)
Rebel & Mercury (Nikki Sherritt)
Rising Phoenix Perfume (JK DeLapp)
Roxana Illuminated Perfumes (Roxana Villa)
Sebastian Signs (Sherri Sebastian)
Velvet & Sweet Pea’s Purrfumery (Laurie Stern)




WHEN:
Saturday, June 22nd, 11am-5pm


WHERE:
Moryork Studio
4959 York Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
 

WHAT:
11am-Noon: Moderated Discussion With Perfumers
Noon-5pm: Reception and Collective Pop Up Shop Opens
Come sniff, get the story behind each perfumer's art and, if you choose, purchase directly from them.
Tickets are $10 and can be purchased online in advance on the FRAGments website.

Lampblack

Lampblack by Bruno Fazzolari
Every evening before sunset, the preparations for the lightless hours commenced: father would fill the lamps with petroleum, trim the wicks and replace the spent ones; and mother would clean the soot off the fragile mouth-blown glass shields with a round bottle-brush. This job had to be done well ahead of time to ensure they are completely dry. Failure to do so would result of the glass exploding into shreds once the heat of the flame kisses the damp glass.

This is how I grew up, in the dim light to do the homework to in contrast to the blasting Mediterranean sun. Moths and fireflies will gather around the lamps and candles, often sacrificing their tiny lives by getting too close to the light... If you were too light-greedy by raised the flaming wick - the exact opposite result will be achieved: would  too much soot will collect rapidly on the glass, blocking the light and create more work for the next day...

One day technology arrived at my home village in the form of solar-power, and the petroleum lamps and all those little strange mundane details of electric-free life were almost forgotten... Until I encountered Bruno Fazzolari, a visual and perfume artist as well as an art educator - and his new perfume collection of 5 fragrances with the eponymous title. I instantly fell for two out of the five, and learned that the soot collecting on such lamps has a name, and is also the most ancient of all pigments: Lampblack.
Petroleum lamp by MrsFaraway
Petroleum lamp, a photo by MrsFaraway on Flickr.
Lampblack is not an isolated perfume - it was debuted as part of an art show at Gallery Paule Anglim in San Francisco, alongside a series of Exploring the relationship between art and perfume is a controversial and difficult subject (for many reasons I feel should be the topic of another post) and it's both exciting and encouraging to see an artist taking the risk and seriously pursuing the challenge.

Lampblack pigment is not simply black - but also possesses brownish or blue background hues that might show more clearly to the untrained eye after the colour fades a bit. It's a very versatile pigment - and is used to create India Ink, as well as black water colour and oil paints.

The primal, basic nature of lampblack pigment appeals to me. There is something very straight forward about it; yet also a mystery. It connects the innate need to tell a story through the ages - on cave walls or the Metro station.

Lampblack perfume encompasses that connection: it has some very prehistoric elements such as the smokiness of nagramotha (cyperus, a relative of vetiver that has an almost tar-like scent that is not unlike petroleum at its pure state); an ink-like quality that makes one think of the cold steel from which bridges are built. Strangely enough, it also reminds me of a visit to a fisher's docks in Haifa in elementary schools, when we were shown a cephalopod and the ink that comes out of it. There was a salty, metallic scent in the air of a rainy winter day, the rusty ships and wet wooden docks.

Upon application, Lampblack possesses an abstract yet familiar freshness merged with woodsy and mineral elements: sulfuric grapefruit, flint-like black pepper and woodsy sandalwood and vetiver. Quickly, a turpentine-like smokiness of nagramotha interferes with the agreeable opening, and an abstract array of molecules that bring to mind ink and minerals. Underneath it, if you listen carefully, there's a quiet jasmine note peaking through the rather angular structure, echoing the "fruity magentas" and splashes of yellow that are peaking through the buoyant spills of thick India ink in the artist's painting - but perhaps it's the other way around. Powdery benzoin mellows out the dryness of the woods, suave and absorbent like rough watercolour paper.

Lampblack perfume and the entire collection of 5 can be purchased directly from the artist's Edition webpage, or via his Etsy shop.

If There Ever Was - A Book of Extinct and Impossible Smells

The book that came out of this unusual smell-art exhibit is now available to the public, and one can experience these uncomfortable scents at the comfort of his/her own home. These include the hypothetical scents of the atomic bomb exploding on Hiroshima, the scent of the sun, extinct botanical species and the smell of communism. The concept was conceived by curator Robert Blackson for an exhibit of that name, and perfumers Bertrand Duchaufour, Christoph Hornetz, Mark Buxton, Christophe Laudamiel, Geza Schön and Sissel Tolaas created these as scents.

Thanks to Steven for the tip and for the link to the NY Times article.

Blunda Perfume Exhibitions

Beginning in March 2009, Blunda in Los Angeles will showcase a natural botanical perfumer every month. The exhibitions at Blunda will highlight perfumery as an art form. Each exhibit is dedicated to the perfumer as an artist, and most perfumers will be physically present at Blunda for a special event during that month.

Here is the exhibit schedule:
March 2009 - Velvet and Sweet Pea's Purrfumery (Laurie Stern)
April 2009 - Ayala Moriel Parfums
May - Persephenie (Blunda)
June - Artemisia Perfume (Lisa Fong)
July - YOSH Olfactory Sense (Yosh Han)
August - JoAnne Bassett
September - Elena Steel
October - DSH Perfumes (Dawn Spencer Hurwitz)

For the weekend of April 17-19 I will be visiting Blunda for a special event of afternoon tea and a presentation with Q&A. This will be a unique art-show event. I will be presenting the perfume I’ve designed last spring as part of the Perfume Inside a Poem project on Memory & Desire blog, - a cherry blossom perfume inspired by a poem by Ezra Pound; as well as showcasing images of cherry blossom in Vancouver that I photographed while making the perfume.

Alchemy and Artistry

Last Sunday, Nov 16, a unique art show opened in FibreWorks Gallery in the Sunshine Coast, titled Alchemy and Aritstry.
The show was initiated and hosted/currated by Anita Kalnay, certified aromatherapist, visual artists and a Spiritual PhytoEssencing practitioner who lives and works in Alert Bay, BC and is currently studying Ayala Moriel's Foundation of Natural Perfumery Course.
Eight artists explore the concept of Spiritual PhytoEssencing by creating visual art in response to different essences and PhytoEssence blends created by Anita.

FibreWorks Gallery
12887 - 12889 Sunshine Coast Hwy
Madeira Park, BC
Tel.: (604) 883-2380
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