Scents from a far away island...

I think this topic came up as I was discussing ideas with Jennifer and upon reflection, I think it is an important idea to note down. 

 

SCENTS... 

 

Living on a small island, I have forever been surrounded by all kind of scents..(exotic flowers, fruits,sea breeze,first rain after sunny days,etc) However, I have never given much thought about it and it had never occurred to me before that I could explore on this possibility as an artistic experiment. I think my recent Task: Breaking Boundaries has much to do with this line of thinking. This task really led me to REFOCUS on things which I took for granted and of course to think on these ideas of BEING and PARTICIPATING as the artwork itself (This whole exercise about the investment of one's emotion into the work was really something that I enjoyed and I would like to think more about..)

As I began thinking about my art as one WHOLE project, I think literally EVERYTHING that is around me is affecting me/inspiring me to my making and changing my perception on different possibilities. Being an introvert, I think that there was a kind of fear of the unknown that has died out to give way to other possibilities, to which I can say: WHY NOT?

 

Recently someone from abroad said to me that it was nice to land up in Mauritius as she could smell the sweet scent of Mauritius. Of course, to me, this EXPERIENCE was something unknown and triggered my imagination as to how I could associate things together into an artform. I had also experienced an "eureka moment" as I was walking in a mango orchard one very hot summer day. I think at that particular moment I was thinking about SHARING (very much as a mystical experience..) 

 

 

I had also read the novel Patrick Suskind's "DAS PERFUM", a delicious book about the sense of smell and its relationship with the emotional meaning that scents may carry. Above all I think it all has to deal with a story which is also in line with the deep sense of identity and the self. As research, I have noted a nice quote from this link: http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/paintsound.html , which has quite a nice document on the painting of sound,noise and smell.

 

 "We do not exaggerate in claiming that smell alone is enough to create in our minds arabesques of form and colour which can constitute the motive and justify the necessity of a painting. In fact, if we are shut in a dark room (so that our sense of sight no longer functions) with flowers petrol or other strong-smelling things, our plastic spirit gradually eliminates the memory sensations and constructs particular plastic wholes whose quality of weight and movement corresponds perfectly to the smells found in the room. These smells, through an obscure process, have become an environment-force, determining that state of mind which for us Futurist painters constitutes a pure plastic whole.."