The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store Volume 2 premiers at Bio-Art Seoul 2015
This November I found myself in Seoul for the Bio-Art Seoul 2015 Conference. It’s great to be back here in Korea, which is turning into a yearly homecoming of a sort. Annyunghaseyo!
For my bit in the show, I presented the second volume of The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store. There were eight new scents I debuted here. The line was called “A Walk Home” and it was based on the scents of my childhood in the Philippines. These olfactory memories were especially potent when I moved to Manila last year after ten years of being away.
The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store: A Walk Home has these eight scents: Recess, A Chinese Apothecary, Time with My Mom, Swimming Lessons, Wild Grass, Manila Sunsets, Carnival, and Moments of Solitude. I made these in my kitchen.
During the exhibition, it was fascinating to see families smell the perfumes. My favorite part was when I saw the little kids trying them on, especially the really small ones who had to tiptoe to reach the bottles. I’m a big believer of science museums as an agency of awareness and change, and using interactive experiences as inclusive ways to disseminate information and engage audiences. Most visitors, especially kids, went straight to smelling the perfumes instead of reading the artist statement. They enjoyed their experience and then realized the underlying reason why I created the experience for them.
The exhibition was held at the Gwacheon National Science Museum. Below is a photo of something I had seen a few times when I was in Korea and Japan but never participated in: the East Asian ribbon cutting ceremony where we get to wear white gloves and use a pair of golden scissors to open the event. It was all very interesting.
Many thanks to Bio-Art Seoul 2015, Biocon, Seoulin Bioscience Co., and Digital Art Weeks (DAW) International.
