Artistic Collaboration with Sanaz Mazinani - Exhibit Opens Today!

I'm excited to announce an unusual collaboration with visual artist Sanaz Mazinani, whose exhibit opens today and will feature other senses besides sight. There will be sound and smell as well, and I was chosen to create the latter. Below is more info about the show:  

SANAZ MAZINANI

Light Times

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 12, 2-5pm

Guided Tour of the Exhibition with Sanaz Mazinani: Saturday, January 12, 3pm

Exhibition Dates: January 12 – February 23, 2019

“Light Times” is Sanaz Mazinani's third solo exhibition at Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto. It explores a technical history of photography in an effort to analyse visual language, perception, and the contemporary consumption of images. The studies depart from a set of unique light exposures on photosensitive paper which become the material subjects of each investigation. Throughout the exhibition, the camera-less photographs reappear across different media - unmade, reconstituted and recontextualized as sculpture, scent, sound, or technical print. These physical iterations come together to construct a consideration of the discipline's material capacity to register and document while drawing attention to new realities that form when the recorded information is aestheticised.

Mazinani’s source material is intentionally pre-image, inviting the viewer to focus on the photographic information in the form of simple abstractions made by the artist in the darkroom with light and photographic paper. Her manipulations, and those made in collaboration with technical experts, mimic the strategies of contemporary media circulation: redaction, decontextualisation, and repetition - processes with roots in photography. The works are process driven and utilise a range of methodologies and photographic tools from early photographic history to today. Further investigations offer poetic reflections on loss, time, event, and memory, core to the conceptual dimensions of photography.

“Light Times” looks at the transformation of the three dimensional into the photographic plane, while emphasizing visual shifts that occur through media specificity. The studies work to assemble a map of photographic language, highlighting the processes of photography and situating photograpically captured events, the documentation of the ephemeral/visible, as a relationship to reality created and constructed by the photographer.

Sanaz Mazinani collaborated with Mani Mazinani on Shift, a sound composition that will play from a vinyl record  on a turntable in the gallery formingthe sound component for this exhibition, the Shift LP will be released on Aerophone Recordings in late February. This sound piece addresses the shifts that take place in sight, memory and perception over time and space. Mazinani also worked with perfumer Ayala Moriel to create a unique fragrance ILLUME to conceptually respond to the unique photographic function of registration of light and its simultaneous loss of original meaning. The environmental fragrance ILLUME is a poetic response to the experience of the photographic moment and the function of time’s erasure of that original experience. Furthermore, the artist would like to acknowledge the work and creative labour of the other technicians and artists who used their craft to make a selection of the other pieces in this exhibition, namely Mary Hogan, Mike Robinson, Bob Carnie, Taimaz Moslemian, Noami Dodds, and Jacob Horwood.

An artist and educator, Sanaz Mazinani is based between San Francisco and Toronto. Her work explores how repetition and pattern make information legible, transform seeing into knowing, with the possibility of altering people’s worldview. Working across the disciplines of photography, social sculpture, and large-scale multimedia installations, Mazinani creates informational objects that invite a rethinking of how we see, suspending the viewer between observation and knowledge. Informed by the visual rhetoric and confounding presence of contemporary media circulation, her multidisciplinary practice aims to politicise the proliferation and distribution of images and introduce critical reflection. Mazinani’s works study forms of state control and consider how re-visualizing embedded power structures might interrupt them. In aestheticising informational systems, the artist attempts to contribute to a larger understanding of how conflicting realities are constructed and imagine the communicative possibilities of visual language.

Mazinani holds an undergraduate degree from Ontario College of Art & Design and a master’s degree in fine arts from Stanford University. Her work has appeared in solo exhibitions at institutions including the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and the West Vancouver Museum. She has participated in worldwide exhibitions in institutions such as the Art Museum at the University of Toronto; the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge; the di Rosa Museum, Napa, California; the Fotografie Forum Frankfurt; and the Museum Bärengasse, Zürich. Mazinani’s artwork has been written about in Artforum, artnet News, Border Crossings, Canadian Art, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, among others. Her work was recently featured in Universe: Exploring the Astronomical World published by Phaidon. She was recently awarded the Zellerbach Family Foundation Grant and National Endowment for the Arts grant programs, and her work is held in public collections including the Canada Council Art Bank, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the San Francisco International Airport. She currently teaches in the photography department at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Additional information about ILLUME: 

Ambient fragrance designed to complement and complete “Light Times” - Sanaz Mazinani’s solo exhibition that explores the technical history of photography and its implication on this art form.

ILLUME sheds light on the concept through the sense of smell, which is subconsciously influential in our formation and retrieval of deeply rooted and emotionally charged memories. Being an environmental fragrance and part of an art show makes it public, perhaps even invasive, unlike the intimate and personal memories often elicited by perfume. Therefore, it was important to keep the scent simultaneously vague and familiar. It is immediately noticeable upon entering the space, yet not easily recognizable and identifiable. 

Wherever there is light, there is also shadow. ILLUME explores this interplay of light with the shadows it casts, both in our collective memories and personal ones. The scent is agreeable yet abstract, with disturbing elements hidden in the background. Its design draws on chemical and technical themes such as minerals and acids, to create a reference to the dark room. These dominant acidic and mineral notes are light and sharp, but are only a mask to conceal the dark secrets and hidden memories - embodied with wet, mushroomy woods and smokey notes. Taken outside of their context, these familiar, mundane smells loose their meaning, or perhaps take on a new shape and identity. 

The scent will be "played" during the exhibit and also sold as limited edition room spray for gallery patrons during the time of the show. 

Five by Bruno Fazzolari

 

What's most unique about Five by Bruno Fazzolari is its context, as part of an art show, featuring paintings of one non-representational space from four perspective. The fifth piece is the fragrance that bears the title of the show, Five. 

 I haven't seen the images in person, but Five brings a very cold yet lively feel. Cold wet white tinted with cobalt blue and with scratchy and fidgety brush strokes that tease with vibrant, almost-primary colours. Five feels like a flickering neon light of mint and lemon, yet keeps itself contained within a realm of rather woodsy entities.  

Five is a modern interpretation of the Eau de Cologne genre, bringing forth woodsy and mineral elements with the classical backdrop of citrus and herbs. The briskness of mint is mingled with orange, cedar and oakmoss. Copious amounts of jasmine-y hedione create airy space among all this brings to mind the iconic Eau Sauvage. It's overall character is more masculine than feminine, which makes one wish men would wear cologne more often when it's so sticky outside.

Top notes: Mint, Sweet Orange, Rosemary, Lemon
Heart notes: Jasmine, Hedione, Petitgrain
Base notes: Oakmoss, Musk, Cedar

Ayala Moriel Parfums at FRAGments

FRAGments is tomorrow - Underground, Artisan and Indie Perfume Event/Collective, at the
cabinet-of-curiosities studio of eclectic sculptor and patron to the arts, Clare Graham.

I'd like to present to you the mini-collection that will be representing Ayala Moriel Parfums at this show. My intern Alicia Arruda and I have spent the week indulging in each and every one of them, and are excited to share with you our experience with them and why we think our friends, fans and customers in Los Angeles are going to love them!

Cabaret is deliciously sultry with creamy vanilla absolute, dark coconut, orris root and tropical magnolia, it is no question why this scent, which evokes images of nights spent dancing on the beach, will be perfectly suited for sunny Los Angeles.

Fetish is a scent that is as sexy as it's name. Fetish is flirtatious but surprisingly complex and while it first teases with a sweet citrusy opening, it gradually fades into a soothing, refreshing scent with notes of apricot scented green tea, jasmine sambac, lemongrass, orris root, Himalaya cedarwood and fir. The scent's cheerful and bubbly spirit make it another perfect choice for Los Angeles's FRAGments where it will be featured! Film Noir was the first one I packed for the show. What better suited scent for the city where so many films of this genre came from?
As dark as Norma Desmond's private screening room Sunset Boulevard; and even darker than the soul of the genre's script writers - Film Noir doesn't even have any top notes. Or heart notes. It's all about musky patchouli, with just enough cruelly spicy dark cacao, and cool bitter myrrh from the catacombs to spark your imaginations.



Zangvil  was inspired by the texture of cashemere wool on bare skin.
It's a sexy gourmand, centered with ginger and amber at its core, complemented by sparkling notes of wild orange, sensual honey, botanical musk and spicy ginger lily. Try it tomorrow on your own skin!


Last but not least - Treazon, which is my newest perfume. The star of the scent is the narcotic night-blooming tuberose. A surprisingly wearable scent, Treazon is bold as it contrasts the floralcy of tuberose with medicinal-fruity notes of wintergreen and cassis, spicy notes of cinnamon and star anise, and gourmand nuances of dark vanilla, and last but not least - the animalic notes of African Stone and indolic orange blossom. Like all grand-tuberoses, Treazon has a strong lineage to the classic and controversial fragrance “Fracas” and is already gathering a cult following.
 
Treazon was dubbed "breathtakingly beautiful" by both The Non Blonde and Now Smell This (who immediately added it to their "to-buy" lists - the greatest compliments from ladies with such fine taste in perfume!, and is an 2013 Indie FiFi Award Nominee. 


Where:
MorYork Gallery
4959 York Blvd
Highland Park
Los Angeles, CA
90042
 
When:
Saturday June 22, 2013 (that's tomorrow!)
11am-5pm

What:
11am-12pm, Moderated Discussion Session with perfumers
12pm-5pm Pop-up Shop, with emerging and established, leading perfumers-artisans-artists from across North America (including Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, Persephenie* and Yosh).
* Persephenie will present an experimental olfaction project.

P.s. Due to schedule conflict, I won't be able to attend in person; but my perfume friend, Faith Frenz, will be there to help you make your selections. 

FRAGments this Saturday, June 22nd at MorYork Gallery!

I'm honoured and please to announce that Ayala Moriel Parfums will be part of FRAGments - Underground, Artisan and Indie Perfume Event/Collective The 1st Event to be held on June 22, 2013 at MorYork Gallery, 4959 York Blvd, Los Angeles, CA. On June 22, 2013, FRAGments - Underground, Artisan and Indie Perfume Event/ Collective will bring together olfactory and perfume artists from across North America in a gallery setting to present a curated selection of their work. The event will be the first in a series to be held in a unique space and coincide with the first Saturday of the season. Each event will feature a moderated salon discussion followed by a reception and exhibition where perfumer/creators will be able to present their work in a collective pop- up shop designed and styled by FRAGments.

The name for the series is derived from FRAGRANCE MOVEMENT and picks up on the slang word for perfume, "FRAG". While the event represents a collective, implicit is the recognition that independent, artisan perfumers are fragments of a whole that move in different directions. FRAGments seeks to celebrate these differences.

“Artisan perfumery is a growing movement where individuals are exploring unique olfactory directions through a variety of fragrant media and palettes” says Maggie Mahboubian, founder and curator of FRAGments. “However, very few venues exist for these perfumers to present their handcrafted work. FRAGments will fill that gap”. She adds, “it will provide a small scale, intimate forum for artisan perfumers to interact directly with their audience”. Another unique aspect of this event is that it will define a community and spotlight the art of fragrance design through interpretive and experimental work.

The first FRAGments event will be held at MorYork Gallery in Los Angeles, the studio of eclectic sculptor, Clare Graham whose work visually embodies the spirit of this diverse group of perfumers, who create unique, multifaceted and experimental olfactory art. For more information about Clare Graham and this extraordinary venue please visit: www.claregraham.com.

The event will begin with a salon-style discussion session moderated by Saskia Wilson- Brown. Ms. Wilson-Brown is the director of the newly formed Institute for Art and

Olfaction in Los Angeles. The IAO supports the work of olfactory artists through grants, research opportunities, lectures, workshops and a materials library. For more information please visit www.artandolfaction.com.

Event Details:
Summer Solstice Saturday, June 22, 2013
11am-12pm, Moderated Discussion Session with perfumers 12pm-5pm Pop-up Shop

The following artists will present their work at the 1st FRAGments event on June 22:

JK DeLapp, The Rising Phoenix Perfumery
David Falsberg, Phoenicia Perfumes 
Amanda Feeley, Esscentual Alchemy
Lisa Fong, Artemisia Natural Perfume 
Heather Kauffman, Jolie Laide Perfume 
Maggie Mahboubian, Parfums Lalun
Christi Meshell, House of Matriarch
Mik, MIKMOI San Francisco 
Ayala Moriel, Ayala Moriel Parfums
Persephenie Lea, Persephenie
Sherri Sebastian, Sebastian Signs 
Nikki Sherritt, Rebel and Mercury Parfums 
Meredith Smith, Sweet Anthem Perfumes 
Dawn Spencer-Hurwitz, DSH Perfumes 
Laurie Stern, Velvet and Sweet Pea’s Purrfumery
Roxana Villa, Roxana Illunimated Perfume 
Shelley Waddington, En Voyage Perfume
Yosh Han, YOSH Olfactory Sense

Event Highlights and Notables:

*Persephenie will present an experimental olfaction project.
*En Voyage Perfume will be launching their new fragrance at the 1st FRAGments event. *House of Matriarch will spotlight their Blackbird fragrance which was just named a Top 10 fragrance for 2013 by Men's Journal magazine, the only Indie fragrance that made their Top 10 list.
*Esscentual Alchemy will present “Moon Valley” - Featured in Vogue UK May '13 issue in their Natural Beauty Selections.
*Ayala Moriel Parfums will bring Treazon, which was nominated for the Indie FiFi Awards 2013, and 4 more perfumes especially curated for this unique event.

About FRAGments:

FRAGments was founded by West Coast perfumer Maggie Mahboubian who launched her Parfums Lalun brand in September 2012. Maggie has the unique advantage of approaching FRAGments as an “insider” with knowledge about the details and tools needed to create a successful and vibrant event. Her background as a professional architect gives her the skills to coordinate a complex project and see it through to completion. The FRAGments series intends to uncover the potential of this rapidly evolving genre by highlighting artistic exploration and experimentation.

Follow/like FRAGments on Facebook and visit the website for more details. 

Come sniff, get the story behind each perfumer's art and, if you choose, purchase directly from us!
I won't be there in person, but my perfume-friend Faith Frenz will be representing me and will help you discover a collection of 5 perfumes I curated especially for Los Angeles! 

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased online in advance on the FRAGments website.

Interplay Project: Multi-Media Dance Show Featuring Fragrances by Ayala Moriel Parfums June 7 & 8

The Contingency Plan Collective puts together annual multi-media shows centered around dance in collaboration with other mediums and local artists. This spring, there are six choreographers who are working in collaboration with other artists such as live musicians, media artists, visual artists and more.

I'm extremely honoured and excited to be collaborating with dancer & choreographer Katie DeVries in her piece, which will be featuring 2 of my fragrances as part of her dance performance. Please go there and support local contemporary dance and art!

What:
The Interplay Project

Where:
The Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre

When:
June 7th and 8th at 8:00pm

Tickets are $15 at the door

FRAGments List of Participating Perfumers-Artists

The list of participants at the upcoming FRAGments co-operative art show and perfume pop up shop is out!
Arabesque Aromas (Christen Schilling)
Artemisia Natural Perfume (Lisa Fong)
Ayala Moriel Parfums (Ayala Moriel)
Divine Life Perfumes (Ragna Rostad-Ruffner)
DSH Perfumes (Dawn Spencer Hurwitz)
EnVoyage Perfuems (Shelly Waddington)
Escentual Alchemy (Amanda Feeley)
MikMoi (Michael 'Mik' Coyle)
Parfums Lalun (Maggie Mahboubian)
Persephenie (Persephenie Lea)
Rebel & Mercury (Nikki Sherritt)
Rising Phoenix Perfume (JK DeLapp)
Roxana Illuminated Perfumes (Roxana Villa)
Sebastian Signs (Sherri Sebastian)
Velvet & Sweet Pea’s Purrfumery (Laurie Stern)



WHEN:
Saturday, June 22nd, 11am-5pm

WHERE:
Moryork Studio
4959 York Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
 
WHAT:
11am-Noon: Moderated Discussion With Perfumers
Noon-5pm: Reception and Collective Pop Up Shop OpensCome sniff, get the story behind each perfumer's art and, if you choose, purchase directly from them.
Tickets are $10 and can be purchased online in advance on the FRAGments website.

Lampblack

Lampblack by Bruno Fazzolari

Every evening before sunset, the preparations for the lightless hours commenced: father would fill the lamps with petroleum, trim the wicks and replace the spent ones; and mother would clean the soot off the fragile mouth-blown glass shields with a round bottle-brush. This job had to be done well ahead of time to ensure they are completely dry. Failure to do so would result of the glass exploding into shreds once the heat of the flame kisses the damp glass.

This is how I grew up, in the dim light to do the homework to in contrast to the blasting Mediterranean sun. Moths and fireflies will gather around the lamps and candles, often sacrificing their tiny lives by getting too close to the light... If you were too light-greedy by raised the flaming wick - the exact opposite result will be achieved: would  too much soot will collect rapidly on the glass, blocking the light and create more work for the next day...

One day technology arrived at my home village in the form of solar-power, and the petroleum lamps and all those little strange mundane details of electric-free life were almost forgotten... Until I encountered Bruno Fazzolari, a visual and perfume artist as well as an art educator - and his new perfume collection of 5 fragrances with the eponymous title. I instantly fell for two out of the five, and learned that the soot collecting on such lamps has a name, and is also the most ancient of all pigments: Lampblack.

Petroleum lamp, a photo by MrsFaraway on Flickr.

Lampblack is not an isolated perfume - it was debuted as part of an art show at Gallery Paule Anglim in San Francisco, alongside a series of Exploring the relationship between art and perfume is a controversial and difficult subject (for many reasons I feel should be the topic of another post) and it's both exciting and encouraging to see an artist taking the risk and seriously pursuing the challenge.

Lampblack pigment is not simply black - but also possesses brownish or blue background hues that might show more clearly to the untrained eye after the colour fades a bit. It's a very versatile pigment - and is used to create India Ink, as well as black water colour and oil paints.

The primal, basic nature of lampblack pigment appeals to me. There is something very straight forward about it; yet also a mystery. It connects the innate need to tell a story through the ages - on cave walls or the Metro station.

Lampblack perfume encompasses that connection: it has some very prehistoric elements such as the smokiness of nagramotha (cyperus, a relative of vetiver that has an almost tar-like scent that is not unlike petroleum at its pure state); an ink-like quality that makes one think of the cold steel from which bridges are built. Strangely enough, it also reminds me of a visit to a fisher's docks in Haifa in elementary schools, when we were shown a cephalopod and the ink that comes out of it. There was a salty, metallic scent in the air of a rainy winter day, the rusty ships and wet wooden docks.

Upon application, Lampblack possesses an abstract yet familiar freshness merged with woodsy and mineral elements: sulfuric grapefruit, flint-like black pepper and woodsy sandalwood and vetiver. Quickly, a turpentine-like smokiness of nagramotha interferes with the agreeable opening, and an abstract array of molecules that bring to mind ink and minerals. Underneath it, if you listen carefully, there's a quiet jasmine note peaking through the rather angular structure, echoing the "fruity magentas" and splashes of yellow that are peaking through the buoyant spills of thick India ink in the artist's painting - but perhaps it's the other way around. Powdery benzoin mellows out the dryness of the woods, suave and absorbent like rough watercolour paper.

Lampblack perfume and the entire collection of 5 can be purchased directly from the artist's Edition webpage, or via his Etsy shop.

If There Ever Was - A Book of Extinct and Impossible Smells

The book that came out of this unusual smell-art exhibit is now available to the public, and one can experience these uncomfortable scents at the comfort of his/her own home. These include the hypothetical scents of the atomic bomb exploding on Hiroshima, the scent of the sun, extinct botanical species and the smell of communism. The concept was conceived by curator Robert Blackson for an exhibit of that name, and perfumers Bertrand Duchaufour, Christoph Hornetz, Mark Buxton, Christophe Laudamiel, Geza Schön and Sissel Tolaas created these as scents.

Thanks to Steven for the tip and for the link to the NY Times article.

Blunda Perfume Exhibitions

Beginning in March 2009, Blunda in Los Angeles will showcase a natural botanical perfumer every month. The exhibitions at Blunda will highlight perfumery as an art form. Each exhibit is dedicated to the perfumer as an artist, and most perfumers will be physically present at Blunda for a special event during that month.

Here is the exhibit schedule:
March 2009 - Velvet and Sweet Pea's Purrfumery (Laurie Stern)
April 2009 - Ayala Moriel Parfums
May - Persephenie (Blunda)
June - Artemisia Perfume (Lisa Fong)
July - YOSH Olfactory Sense (Yosh Han)
August - JoAnne Bassett
September - Elena Steel
October - DSH Perfumes (Dawn Spencer Hurwitz)

For the weekend of April 17-19 I will be visiting Blunda for a special event of afternoon tea and a presentation with Q&A. This will be a unique art-show event. I will be presenting the perfume I’ve designed last spring as part of the Perfume Inside a Poem project on Memory & Desire blog, - a cherry blossom perfume inspired by a poem by Ezra Pound; as well as showcasing images of cherry blossom in Vancouver that I photographed while making the perfume.

Alchemy and Artistry

Last Sunday, Nov 16, a unique art show opened in FibreWorks Gallery in the Sunshine Coast, titled Alchemy and Aritstry.
The show was initiated and hosted/currated by Anita Kalnay, certified aromatherapist, visual artists and a Spiritual PhytoEssencing practitioner who lives and works in Alert Bay, BC and is currently studying Ayala Moriel's Foundation of Natural Perfumery Course.
Eight artists explore the concept of Spiritual PhytoEssencing by creating visual art in response to different essences and PhytoEssence blends created by Anita.

FibreWorks Gallery
12887 - 12889 Sunshine Coast Hwy
Madeira Park, BC
Tel.: (604) 883-2380