It is becoming clear that April is going to be a rather busy month. It will see me host 3 perfume making workshops, an artist’s talk and, predominantly, my first Perfume as Practice solo show of the year – Perfume as Practice SS18 at Bureau Gallery, Blackburn.
On Saturday I will visit the gallery in order to gauge the space and decide the volume of fragrance it can accommodate. Doing this is something of a dark art as the ethereal nature of how scent exists physically and the effect of scent upon an audience cannot wholly be quantified. But experience has taught me that less is more: My very first Perfume as Practice solo show at Bank Street Arts housed no less than 25 perfumes in a small, almost domestic space. Needless to say it was a rather heady experience and the perfumes themselves were positioned too close to each other, making them hard to comprehend visually:
My most recent exhibition at Surface Gallery housed 20 perfumes in a space about 5 times larger than my first show. This was a good amount as the audience could exist within the space without getting overloaded by fragrance.
There are other variables, of course, to the ways in which scent exists within a space; other considerations include how large the bottles are, exactly how an audience interacts with the fragrance and whether the perfume is alcohol or oil based. These considerations will all be factored in to my assessment of the space on Saturday to ensure a composed experience for my audience.
There is a degree of coyness to April’s barrage of creative activity as I’m conscious of taking too much on. But I’m confident that the quality of my work will not suffer. So let’s just get on with it!
I find myself in a rather unusual yet advantageous position of having all of my fragrance based endeavours for the next 12 months secured. The only anomaly to this is ‘Scents of our Time’ – which I’d like to trial somewhere before the year is out. This means that attention has turned to two things – securing opportunities for 2019 and, more pertinently, securing funding for this year.
My experience with funding is a little turbulent but also somewhat underdeveloped – I haven’t attempted many funding applications but, more recently, the ones I have attempted have been successful. This gives me confidence going forward, for sure, and it does reinforce the viability of my position as a fine art perfumer. That said, it might be useful to evaluate the reasons why I have received some successful funding in order to inform future applications.
This year, I am looking to secure funding for two solo shows, a two-man show and two group shows I have initiated; one of which is international. My first action, then, should be to assess which bodies of funding are relevant to each activity and then just get on with it. I have a tendency to deliberate for ages before I actually begin an application. Chiefly I probably overthink how to frame my endeavours as something visual, as is necessary for applications specific to visual arts. My argument is that, to an extent, perfume is a visual activity.
I am also aware that I have a tendency to be a little too flowery in my use of language (as anyone who reads this blog regularly no doubt knows already!) and this of course has an adverse effect on funding applications, where often you have to be clear and concise. This is something I’m much better at that I was, say, 12 months ago though. And the fact that I’m aware of it means I can anticipate it and act accordingly during the funding process.
So a rather administrative start to the new year then! But with my first solo show of the year only a few months off, I expect that to change very soon.
Well that was the year that was 2017. A fantastic fragrant adventure, all told, but to be honest the business of securing exhibitions, holding workshops and sourcing opportunities mean that the years sort of blur into one; a fair chunk of my 2018 diary is filled already and I’m contemplating finding a 2019 one.
That said, as I look to the next 12 months there is one thing I want to address – the extension of my knowledge of perfumery. You see, although 2017 proved fruitful in terms of the exhibition and workshop opportunities presented to me, the sheer workload saw me instigate no tangible further research into perfume as a mode of communication. I’m keen to learn more about the historical, social and political capabilities of scent in order to accomplish richer, more coherent work.
This can be achieved in many ways, including more formal and scholarly research into the subject. But principally this year I wish to let other artists into my perfume making process, initiating collaborations that will be mutually beneficial; seeing not only an exchange of knowledge but a means of furthering our collective understanding of scent and what scent can be.
It’s certainly something I’m looking forward to, although it may well reveal some of my own shortcomings. After all, I’ve only really been making perfumes for a few years and my comparative lack of knowledge may come with it’s own set of problems. But hey, I’m here to learn, and learn I shall!
When I started this blog I vowed never to miss a Monday. So, in an attempt to stay true to my word I’ll just use this opportunity to wish everyone a happy Christmas. I hope you all got all the perfumes and scented candles you can stomach!
2017 has seen me conduct no less than 12 perfume making workshops around the UK. And, as the last one of the year concluded on Saturday I thought it an appropriate time to document and appraise what I’ve learnt about my perfume making workshops over the last 12 months:
- It’s bloody difficult to get men engaged in the perfume making process. But when they are, they’re fully immersed and tend to create wonderful fragrances. At one point during the year I toyed with the idea of framing the workshops differently, presenting them as almost as science experiments in order to attract more men to them. I decided not to as I didn’t want to sell them on a falsehood. Still, questions around how to get more men interested in the possibilities of fragrance remain.
- I’m getting better at describing how scents smell. This is a surprisingly useful tool when trying to explain what happens to the aromatic compositions of oils when they combine. I’m by no means an expert in fragrance (and I don’t pretend to be) but using a wider and more informed vocabulary when describing scents helps reinforce my credentials as a fine art perfumer.
- I’m still learning all the time. And that’s fine as my attendees are always informed of the fact that I’m approaching perfumery differently; from the point of view of an artist. Indeed sometimes my attendees know more than me about the qualities of some of the oils. And that’s fine too; it makes workshops feel more like an exchange of knowledge, which is always welcomed.
- The process is actually quite performative. Which is good because once again it reinforces my position; I’m an artist, not a perfumer, and a bit of performance directly indicates this.
- As I now feel much more assured as a fine art perfumer compared to a year ago I think it’s time to improve the quality of my workshop materials. I feel as though the depth and value of the knowledge I impart is of a higher quality compared to last year, but the materials I use don’t reflect this. Maybe I’m being overly critical but it’s certainly something I’m thinking about.
