Learn how to play

Trust Art is a social platform that is commissioning
ten public artworks over the next year. People are invited to
become shareholders with $1, share with interested friends, and renew culture.

Perfume Fountain for Humanity

A public project led by artist Anne McClain

Project Proposal

The creation of a perfume begins with a brief. For Anne’s project, that brief is to create a scent based on the experience of an act of humanity.

In September of 2009, Anne will travel to the city of San Miguel de Allende in Mexico with a group of twelve friends and perfumers and spend one week volunteering at the Casa de los Angeles, teaching art and visiting the local botanical garden at a day care center for children of single mothers. This act will serve as a tribute to a friend of Anne’s who volunteered at the Casa de los Angeles in 2003 and wrote of her experience, “I want to work with children..and do something to somehow improve their lives. I know that sometimes that means simply being 'present' to them..sharing a hug, holding them, smiling with them. We don't always have to do the big things to make a difference. If in my time of working with them I can benefit their families and the community in which they live I will be grateful.”

In Grasse, France, the capital of the perfume industry, Anne will create the Humanity scent by combining the techniques of modern perfumery and her studies in aromatherapy. Anne's intention is to use the inherent healing and transformative effects of natural plant materials to create a scent to uplift, encourage relaxation and making connections, stimulate compassion, and nurture a sense of letting go.

The Humanity scent will take the form of a fountain of perfumed water. A place of gathering often found in town squares (in Grasse, a fountain is located in the central square where the daily flower market takes place; in San Miguel de Allende the area where the fountain is located is called El Jardin), the fountain will serve as a place for communing, contemplation, and reflection. The creation of the fountain will be a collaborative effort between Anne, glass artist Alan Iwamura, and industrial designer Lance McGregor.

The fountain will be placed in a public space in New York, acting as a gathering place for people to experience the inspiration and meaning behind Humanity. The fountain is meant to transmit positive energy into the public. The question it will pose is: can good will be spread through scent?

About the Artist

Anne McClain is currently attending the Grasse Institute of Perfumery, taking courses in natural and synthetic raw materials, chemistry, and creation. She studied environmental studies, philosophy, and art at Brown University.

Anne fell into scent as an artistic medium through photography. Anne used photography in the same way she uses scents now - to flatten an experience or memory into something tangible. She also studied aromatherapy to understand the psychological effects the distillation of flowers, resins, barks, peels, leaves and other plant materials have on people.

Anne is passionate about revealing scent's power as artistic medium, and the unparalleled beauty of natural raw materials.

Artist's Past Work







Photography naturally lead Anne to scent artistry. Both mediums lend themselves to the pursuit of trying to capture moments and memories. Anne loves the dreamy, lingering quality that the memory of place can give over time. The excitement and displacement of travel leads one to an experience of being untethered. Anne likes to try and take those feelings, somewhere between illusion and reality, and to condense it, to flatten it, to create something so that she can remember what it feels like, always.




108, 2004
While spending four months living in Nepal, Anne studied with a rinpoche and was initiated into Tibetan Buddhism by a lama. This book recounts some of the insights into her spiritual practice, accompanied by photographs.




Transit/Home, 2005
For a period of a few years Anne travelled incessantly visiting Thailand, Indonesia, Baja California, Japan, and Hawaii, all the while thinking of someone she loved. They circled the globe on different paths, sometimes meeting and sometimes not. They took photographs influenced by each other and collected them into a book.




Kept, 2008
Stemming from her fascination with all things relating to memory, Anne was thinking about the phrase 'a kept woman'. She realized that not only would she most likely be keeping herself, she wanted it that way. At the time she was disappointed in love and conceived of a loverʼs gift to herself. she cut a hole through the center of a book about Paris, writing a story of lost love along the edges. In the void she placed a ring and the book became a jewelry box which she kept for herself.

Perfume - Left
Perfume - Right1

From The Artist

Perfume - Right2

Your Voice

« Second Introduction to Perfumery Workshop Added! | Main | »
Monday
Aug032009

Saturday's Workshop

The first Humanity perfume workshop was a success!  The weather was beautiful, and spending an afternoon in the garden smelling and talking with a great group of people was very enjoyable.

This workshop introduced some of the natural and synthetic raw material ingredients used to compose a perfume.  Although perfumery is a skill in which the more training one has the more expertise one will acquire, I believe it is similar to other arts like painting and cooking, where anyone can learn the basics.

We started by smelling patchouli and bergamot oils.  Most people recognize patchouli as "the hippie scent," but few people know how much patchouli is used in commercial perfumery, such as in Prada and Lovely.  Natural patchouli has over 140 chemical constituents, and cannot be replicated in a laboratory.  I showed everyone a gas chromatography readout of patchouli oil (basically, there is a machine which you can put a tiny drop of oil or perfume into, and it will read out all of the chemicals contained in that), to show that even the most minute amounts of an ingredient contribute to a scent's distinct character.  

We also talked about the aromatherapeutic qualities of natural patchouli oil.  A reference book I like to use called Scent and Psyche says, "Patchouli has an arousing quality that provides an antidote for moods of apathy or indifference; it is likewise helpful for mental confusion or indecision."

Although the use of natural oils in perfumery is prized, there are times when synthetics are advantageous. Take the example of Indian Sandalwood.  In India, many of the oils produced stay in-country, because India consumes a lot of oils for incense and flavoring their tobacco.  The sandalwood tree is on the endangered species list, and each tree needs to reach maturity before the oil is extracted, which takes forty years.  In such cases, the synthetic ingredient is a much more conscious option to use.  We compared the scents of a natural Indian Sandalwood oil to that of Bacdanol, one of its synthetic counterparts.  It's very interesting to hear all of the comments of people smelling in a group.  Do we all have the same sense of smell?  Do our personal histories and memories shape how we perceive a smell?  Without the language to accurately describe smells, what words can we use to communicate what we smell?

We also spent some time smelling a variety of synthetic materials: Ambroxan, a luscious amber frequently used in men's scents; Calone and Adoxal, two powerful marine scents; Aldehyde C14, the unmistakeable scent of artificial peach; Floralozone, which, as Jason said, smells like lilypads; Phenylacetic acid, the overpowering scent of an animalic honey; Cashmeran, a pine-inflected amber that's reminiscent of a handsome man; Stemone, which smells like the freshly cut stem of a fig tree; and Veltol +, which really should've just been named cotton candy.

The workshop ended by smelling three commercial fragrances and seeing if we could begin to break down the scent, recognizing that perfumes are, at their core, a collection of ingredients.  And the first step to learning perfumery, is learning the ingredients.

Thanks to all those who RSVPed and responded with kind words in support of the Humanity perfume project, and a big thank you to the Open Space Alliance for lending me their tent!  

DateAugust 3, 2009 at 14:29 | Comment1 Comment

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>

Notify me of follow-up comments via email.