I'll be in The Netherlands in the later half of September, giving a course at Art Science Interfaculty of Royal Academy of Art, The Hague.
http://smellart.blogspot.com
In a meanwhile I'll be giving a workshop at Camerajapan Festival in Rotterdam, on The Tale of Genji on the 23rd of Sep.
https://camerajapan.nl/event/the-smell-of-the-tale-of-genji/
Also I'll be attending Odorama at Mediamatic on the 21st of Sep.
Back to Japan on the 3rd of Oct. On the 12th of Oct, I'll be giving a lecture at Keio University SFC where I graduated from!
Olfactory magazine NEZ will be published wherein my works are reviewed.
I'll also be making a show, or premier of new (but prototype) installation at my home base, Ishigaki Isl, somewhere in Oct.
In Nov, a presentation is planned in Tokyo (17th?)
That's it so far... see you all around!
6.5.17
Scent as a material or as a phenomenon?
An excerpt from my presentation at The Experimental Scent Summit / Art and Olfaction Awards, on the May 5th, 2017.
http://www.artandolfactionawards.org/summit/
I raised my interests as question : Scent as material as phenomenon?
http://www.artandolfactionawards.org/summit/
I raised my interests as question : Scent as material as phenomenon?
Coming from Japan and working a lot in the olfactory art scene in the West, I sometimes get a feeling being lost in the contexts. For example when people talk about perfume as a standard platform of scent culture, I feel different. I try to illustrate, with my words, the context where I live.
In the West, it is quite normal to wear perfume as social manner, but in Japan it's not. We have longer tradition in incense. We even have developed sophisticated games for olfaction and literature, Kodo, more than 1000 years ago. In the West you wear perfume for identity and for self expression. This creates a domain around you. We in Japan first respect others, and the space between us. We use incense to share time and space. It function almost as a medium for communication. So if one overpower the space by his/her overwhelming perfume or bodily scent, this creates a problem.
One might say it's one of the Japanese original concepts called "ma". Western people have much stronger body odor than us Japanese. So using perfumes to mask the body odour is accepted socially. We have little body odor, and on top of that, we have a habit to bathe daily to wash away the body odour.
Scents are used more for the others. For ancestors in buddhism ceremony (for purification of spirits, and respecting them), and for guests as hospitality. Incense is lit long before guests come, so that he/she can enjoy the trace of scent left in the space. Smoke disturbs the olfaction so burning it in presence of guests is to be avoided.
In the West, a scent is a material. It has the source, you can specify the source, you can name it, and you can even specify the chemical components. When you smell something you try to specify it: "what is this scent?". You might find a pot of hyacinth on the table: you can specify the scent source. And the chemical structure is pretty known: benzyl acetate, phenyl ethyl alc., etc. Scent is an object itself and at the same time material that you can control. It's something visible.
Scent created by incense is penetrated in the space, hanging in the air. You might notice it, but you might not. The scent exists only for one's mind who can detect it and appreciate it. Normally we don't specify what the smell is, because we know that what we are smelling is a mixture of the space odor and season's fragrance from plants in garden, etc. We smell it more like looking at a scenery. We simply appreciate being "inside" of the scents.
We also smell scents in mind. For example when you say a word like "osmanthus", it implies not only the season (often defined in protocols of classical poems) but also implies the scent too.
In Kodo games in contrary, we have to specify and distinguish the scents. We use the verb "to listen to" for smelling with this critical attitude.
These are questions, or just my interests raised from my observation. I would simply like to share with my fragrant friends. Comments are welcome.
4.12.15
Les cheveux noirs et la madeleine / Black tresses and the madeleine
Franco-Japanese exhibition and a workshop series on the scent of Kyoto, by two olfactory artists
Les deux artistes olfactifs, le Français Boris RAUX et la Japonaise Maki UEDA, présentent chacun ses œuvres et performances inspirées du parfum et de l'arôme de Kyoto.
The two olfactory artists, French Boris RAUX and Japanese Maki UEDA will each present their works inspired by scent/perfume/smell/ of Kyoto.
The two olfactory artists, French Boris RAUX and Japanese Maki UEDA will each present their works inspired by scent/perfume/smell/ of Kyoto.
- Date / Term
- [sat.] December 19 - [sun.] December 27, 2015
12h00 - 20h00 - Venue
- Kyoto Art Center , dans la pièce de style japonais "Meirin" / the Japanese style room "Meirin"
- Artistes présentés / Artists
- Boris RAUX, Maki UEDA
- Curatrice / Curator
- Yoko IWASAKI
- Les événements de l'exposition / Related events
- Samedi, 19 décembre
Vernissage: 17h00-
Conférence de Yoko IWASAKI: 18h00-
Atelier de Maki UEDA "KYOTO LOVE STORY": 19h00-
Dimanche, 20 décembre
Atelier de Maki UEDA "KYOTO LOVE STORY 2nd": 14h00-
Saturday, December 19
Opening: 17:00-
Lecture by Yoko IWASAKI: 18:00-
Maki UEDA workshop "KYOTO LOVE STORY": 19:00-
Sunday, December 20
Maki UEDA workshop "KYOTO LOVE STORY 2nd": 14:00-
Contact
tél: +81 (0)75 864 7858 (Yoko IWASAKI)
6.11.15
SCENT IN CONTEMPORARY ART: An Investigation Into Challenges & Exhibition Strategies
My works are mentioned here...
This study's purpose was to investigate principal challenges and exhibition strategies for scent art; surveying current approaches and solutions used and developed by today’s small, but growing number of scent artists. Since such previously non-existent practical information is essential for any artist seeking to successfully exhibit their scent-based work and institutions seeking maintain a high standard of exhibition quality, this study focused on developing an information framework for effective exhibition practices in scent art, whilst simultaneously fostering the building of awareness... |
3.5.15
Making of "The Juice of War - Hiroshima & Nagasaki -"
Maki Ueda
for “The smell of war” exhibition
for “The smell of war” exhibition
Title: The Juice of War – Hiroshima and Nagasaki –
Year: 2015
When I was a child, my bedroom contained a shelf of my mother’s books and one of these book was about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Inside I found photos of burned and rotten bodies. A field full of bodies that no longer look like bodies. It was in the high summer season so the bodies would quickly rot and flies laid eggs wherever they could.
The photos were so shocking to me that for nights I was afraid to go to sleep. But I did not dare ask my mother to remove that book from my bedroom because it seemed rude to the victims. As I grew up I peeked into the book again and again, out of curiosity for the atomic bombings, and I realized that I was getting better in dealing with the fear. I ended up sleeping with that book until I left home at the age of 17.
The photos were so shocking to me that for nights I was afraid to go to sleep. But I did not dare ask my mother to remove that book from my bedroom because it seemed rude to the victims. As I grew up I peeked into the book again and again, out of curiosity for the atomic bombings, and I realized that I was getting better in dealing with the fear. I ended up sleeping with that book until I left home at the age of 17.
I completely forgot about these pictures, but all of sudden, while I was thinking what to show here, I realized that they were the reason why I could not think anything else beside the smell of rotten flesh when I think of “the smell of war”.
In other words, working on this concept was digging into my memories.
Instruction:
Please put your head in a bowl. This smell was manually extracted from the juice of burned and rotten flesh.
The interface design:
I saw the acrylic bowl myself because there was no company who could do this... it was quite some work.
Purchasing the parts for "katrol"
And I bought pieces of meat at a local supermarket: checkin and pork, and burned them.
And dried them for 10 days in the sunlight.
This is the simulation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was high in the summer time when they got bombed, and the burned corps got rotten quickly. Flies lay eggs and it stank terribly everywhere.
After 5 or 6 days they started to smell like a garbage. Around the 10th day it started to stink sour, and this was the limit (also for my neighbor...).
I extracted a little to check the smell and turned out that it was missing the burned scent, so I burned them extra.
Then sliced them. My cutting board was suddenly covered with the flies. It was like a horror movie. I couldn't inhale even, so I inhaled the fresh air 10m away and ran to the cutting board.
After the extraction, I filterd it, but it also releases smells everywhere... I got headache from it. If I would have continued this process I would have gotten depressed.
In my fridge is the extract and beer mixed up.
The organizer was preparing the interface as exactly as I indicated... I feel really grateful to them.
Before the opening I infused the scent in the bowl and cleaned the surface.
The prime minister of Vlamish government also enjoyed the work at the opening.
The castle De Loving, Poperinge, Belgium.
The Smell of War exhibition:
2.5.15
There is something in the air - catalogue
Caro Verbeek, the curator of this exhibition, has written a very poetic text about my works... Impressed.
Publisher: Hoenes-Stiftung und Dr. Stefanie Dathe, Museum Villa Rot
ISBN 978-3-9816250-5-9
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