ONLINE VERSION OF ARTICLE IS HERE
PDF VERSION IS HERE
THE ESSENCE OF HUMANITY
Scents are possibly one of the most difficult things to translate into something written or visual. However, the New York artist Anne McClain has proposed to create a perfume that evokes the human, as well as change the attitude of those who wear it.
The essence, which will take the name Humanity, will flow from a fountain at a public park in Brooklyn, to transmit to passerby feelings of love and peace.
The installation forms part of Trust Art, an initiative founded by Seth Aylmer and Jose Serrano-Reyes, as a kind of stock market for art, in which common citizens become shareholders with as little as one dollar towards the realization of ten projects by emerging artists.
McClain studied the basic principles of perfumery at the Grasse Institute of Perfumery, in the south of France, and combined it with her knowledge of aromatherapy.
"To make perfumes based on an act of social consciousness has become something more important than I had imagined," she says in the interview.
To approach the idea of what it means to be human, McClain spent a week as a volunteer at the Casa de los Angeles, in San Miguel de Allende, a day care center for orphans and children of women who come to sell their wares at the local market.
"To be with these children made me think differently about our world. When you help someone and separate your own goals from all of that you think of humanity in a broader sense."
The artist took some herbs from San Miguel de Allende, which will be integrated into the essence she is working on.
With the Humanity fragrance, McClain seeks to break the artificial, superficial, sensual, and glamorous image that the perfume industry sells.
"It's a different plane of reality. When you see a commerciial for some perfume you ask yourself 'What is this?' Can we create something that inspires this industry to think differently about what it's doing, and that provokes the social consciousness of the world we live in, instead of that material, sexual, fantasy that exists on a different level?" asks Jose Serrano-Reyes.
The fountain that McClain plans to install in Brooklyn will be made of glass, conceived by glass artist Alan Iwamura and the industrial designer Lance McGregor.
"The fountain will be a mechanism for something that started out as an act of good will and inspires contemplation and meditation," adds Serrano-Reyes.
McClain thinks about perfume in a philosophical way, using its relationship to aromatherapy as a departure point; scent reflects people's personalities, as well as evoking certain moments or emotions.
If the perfume industry can create more personal fragrances, and guided more towards the artisanal, as is happening in fashion and music, it be something else," she says.
The photographer trusts that this essence can become a symbol for a generation of artists that think about the social and participatory value of art, more than how much money can be made from the piece.
The glass sculpture will be installed in the public space in Brooklyn for between three and six months and will then be auctioned, returning value to every shareholder invested in the project.
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
Alan and Isaac, the glass team.
April 13, 2010 at 10:34 | 
;)
;)
;)
;)
From right: Cat, Donna, Sylvia (another volunteer), Seema, Miguel, me, Harry, and Wendell.
All photos in this collage courtesy of