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A sensory experience

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[Miriam] Langer and her collaborator, Saskia Wilson-Brown, created That Old Witch (2019) as a sensory experience. Six of seven wooden boxes contain scents connected to the lore surrounding the figure of the archetypal Russian crone, including the scent of a Russian forest and of Baba Yaga herself. Each box was inspired by the traditional folk art form of painted lacquered boxes, which connect to Russian folklore and legend. Each scent was developed from formulas created by Wilson-Brown, the founder of the Institute for Art and Olfaction in Los Angeles and a visiting lecturer at London’s Royal College of Art.

— Currents 826 in Santa Fe is now exhibiting Winter Tales, including the "retelling of a classic winter witch tale through smell" described above. Read more in Art that comes in from the cold: "Winter Tales" at Pasatiempo.

You need to be patient

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Wilson-Brown added that even if it was stored perfectly, the aldehydes (“that Champagne popping aspect”) are so fragile, they’d probably be damaged by now anyway. We waited out the base notes, and she cautioned me that with old scents, the top notes are often the first to go bad so you need to be patient after that first hit. “Real perfume nerds have a special closet in their house, the coolest darkest spot.” I asked if she had one, and she said no, she’s not a nerd.

— Saskia Wilson-Brown at the Institute for Art and Olfaction helps The Cut writer Maggie Lange with her quest to smell a long discontinued fragrance. Read more at The Hunt for a Perfume Worn by a Writer Who Terrifies Me.

The Grey Lady

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Luca Turin talks about “violet, ionones and iris, in this teaser from the upcoming feature documentary, ‘The Grey Lady'”. From the film’s website: “The Grey Lady is a documentary exploring the very real challenges faced by several perfumers in their competition to re-create a perfume that has been – and may yet remain – lost to time.” I have no further information, but it looks like the fragrance is Jacques Fath Iris Gris. (For one “new version”, see Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Scent of Hope.)

The documentary is being produced by The Institute for Art and Olfaction, and they’re in need of funding support. There are fun perks! Do watch their video below the jump…

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What goes through people’s minds when they smell

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Sweaty T-shirt experiments conducted in medical labs eventually gave way to the pheromone party craze of the 2000s, in which singles pick dates based solely on smelling each other's worn shirts. But the way [Susan] Barbour sees it, pheromone parties are lacking "the most interesting part of the whole experiment, which is, what goes through people's minds when they smell and do we have a vocabulary and associations to adequately describe what people smell like?" she says. "That to me is the interesting thing that nobody was talking about. And that's the taboo."

— Jennifer Swan at Bustle, in I Went to an Armpit Sniffing Class. The class was at the Institute for Art and Olfaction.

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