Jasmine from Grasse

Calgary, Canada, 2016-17

Our relationship to place is a strange one: why is it that a feeling or memory about a particular place or time can be more vivid than others? How do significant, and seemingly insignificant, moments lodge within our sense of self? Is it possible that a certain place or experience, no matter how small, can define part of who we are?

Smell, a sense that is strongly and directly connected to our long-term memory, uniquely allows us to access past places, experiences, and emotions through the faintest association. Jasmine from Grasse is an invitation to journey to a specific moment in someone else’s life through an olfactory encounter. Sans façon, with the help of Professor of Psychology, Glen Bodner, and Master Perfumer, Irene Schnell, have faithfully recreated the scent of a place and time drawn from the individual memories of six members from the Atlantic Avenue Art Block, generously allowing us to share in the intimacy of a long ago moment through its particular scent.

Each week for the duration of the show, one of the scents was diffused in the exhibition space alongside a printed version of the corresponding memory.

The installation was in the Esker project space from November 2016 to January 2017

Jasmine from Grasse was commissioned by Esker Foundation
 

For the full texts from each participant, click here