Volatile Derivatives
Jacob Sawyer Shippee Aliaksandra Basalayeva L.L. West Ana Maria De La Fuente Naoko Kusunoki Shahira Hammad Lucille Lefrang Nina Lamaison Michael Marano Anjali Vandemark Hannah Marie Marcus Eva Silberknoll Edel Kelly
May 29 to June 21 2025 @ Olfactory Art Keller
25A Henry Street, New York 10002, NY
Artists’ Reception on Saturday, June 14th from 3pm to 6pm
Edel Kelly Kewrosivora
In film, music, and visual art there is a rich tradition of creating works that engage directly with previous works. Homages, parodies, appropriations, remixes, cover versions, remakes, knockoffs, and refutations all engage with previous works while explicitly acknowledging them.
In perfumery, intellectual property is much more difficult to protect than in other media, which results in a culture of secrecy and a taboo about referring to or building on previous works. Scent art, on the other hand, is free to respond to perfumes and engage with them in creative ways. In Volatile Derivatives, thirteen artists from seven countries present new works that respond to other scents.
Jacob Sawyer Shippee’s GMO Tomato explores how fragrance might evolve as our olfactory reference points shift in the age of biotechnology. The scent is based on the tomato accord found in Replica: From the Garden by Maison Margiela but incorporates geraniol to reflect the aromatic profile of a tomato that was genetically modified to biosynthesize geraniol during ripening.
Lucille Lefrang’s Fantôme, a styrallyl acetate-centered response to Phantom by Paco Rabanne, a scent formulated using data from 45 million brain readings of young men, was created with the assistance of ChatGPT. The softness and spring-like quality of the scent contrasts with the artist’s unease about this way of formulating.
Edel Kelly’s Kewrosivora pays homage to two ancient flowers, the rose and the flower of the Pandanus Odoratissimus. These two flowers and their long histories and roles in mythology are combined by mixing Rosa Carnivora by Dries Van Noten and a pure Kewda Attar from Orissa India. Inspired by the artistry of Mughal glass makers, the new scent is rebottled in the original French porcelain glass from Dries Van Noten which the artist then painted with stylized Kewra leaves.
For Azzaro para Papá, Ana Maria De La Fuente altered Azzaro Pour Homme to capture the scent memory of experiencing it on her father, who wore it for most of his life. She blended the fragrance with other scents that evoked his presence—whiskey and sweat—recreating an olfactory memory that triggers a complicated set of emotions for her: familiarity, heartache, and tenderness.
Shahira Hammad’s Akhet is a homage to sTj-ḥb, the Festival Perfume, one of ancient Egypt’s Seven Sacred Oils which was part of a larger ritual structure tied to renewal, emergence, and alignment between body, land, and cosmic rhythm. Akhet, which is motivated by a desire to reimagine ritual in a time that no longer holds it, reclaims the perfume’s symbolic structure and reframes it for our time without attempting to restore what has been lost.
Michael Marano’s The Garden Before the Empire asks what Creed’s Aventus might have been, if crafted only with the materials and methods available at its imagined origin. The Garden Before the Empire uses house-made pineapple and smoked vanilla tinctures, real ambergris, oakmoss, and cedar to reframe Aventus through a living, natural lens.
Eva Silberknoll’s Hypnotic Tune is a reinterpretation of the original Hypnotic Poison by Dior. Tuberose and lily of the valley have been replaced by black pepper and ashtray, apricot by mulberry, and Hypnotic Poison became Hypnotic Tune.
Anjali Vandemark’s Mumtaz is a response to Shalimar by Guerlain, which was inspired by the legendary love story between the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Mumtaz is a reimagination of Shalimar built around rose and perfume materials mentioned in Mughal-era manuscripts. It celebrates the scents that would have perfumed the air as the Empress walked through the Mughal courts and rose gardens of Shalimar.
Nina Lamaison’s Sudor Corp 33 and Aliaksandra Basalayeva’s NYC 33 are both responses to the ubiquitous Santal 33 by Le Labo. NYC 33 is a playful, parodic commentary on that ubiquity. It captures the iconic woody-leathery heart of the original and overlays it with a "NYC Accord" – a subtle olfactory stain reflecting the everyday sensory experience of New York City. The result is an olfactory snapshot: Santal 33, as it truly exists in the artist’s New York – not just as a perfume confined to a bottle, but as an undeniable, pervasive part of the city’s very air. Sudor Corp 33 reveals the sweaty moving bodies instead of hiding them behind soft woods and clean leather. It is an artistic gesture that reclaims what fragrances often try to erase: rawness, intensity and reality. A reminder of when “luxury is vulgarity”.
L.L. West’s BS is a response to Circus Fantasy by Britney Spears, the scent the artist wore as an insecure teenage cheerleader. For BS she combined Circus Fantasy with tar and smoke fleuressence, introducing a rot in the scent that once comforted.
Naoko Kusunoki’s Herbert responds to Mitsouko by Guerlain, a fragrance named after a character in a novel, a married Japanese woman who had a secret relationship with a friend of her husband by the name of Herbert. The artist wanted to give Mitsouko and Herbert, who did not have a happy ending, a perfume as an everlasting tribute, so she created Herbert as her sensory response to Mitsouko.
Hannah Marie Marcus’ Olde Spyce and Flankers consists of three fragrances that question how oldness and sexiness intersect in perfume and perfume marketing. Olde Spyce is a sketch of Old Spice Classic cologne. For Old Man Spyce the artist added trans-2-nonenal, a molecule associated with “old people” smell, and for Sexy Grandad Spyce trans-2-nonenal and androstadienone, a testosterone byproduct found in male sweat.
All works are available for purchase as an edition of 1. Contact info@olfactoryartkeller.com