Event Blog No.3: Diary of Smells: Shards - A Smell Laboratory

screen showing abstract pictures

Table with different smell bottle

On Nov. 7th, I attended an exhibition in CNSI Art|Sci Gallery about smells held by Josely Carvalho. It was a relatively small exhibition comparing to the previous two I have attended. However, the size of the room and my early arrival gave me an intimate interaction with artworks and artists! She is a Brazilian artist living in New York City and Rio de Janeiro. She focused on multi-media art that brings different sensory to the audiences, which I, honestly speaking, have no idea before. The first impression is thrilling! My friend Heming and I were the first audiences of the exhibition, and the welcome music of the room is a loud, terrifying sound of broken glass and later a gunshot. The room is so small that in turn amplified the volume. Without the presence of Ms Josely at first, we even doubt if we came to the right place.

With Josely Carvalho

Under the guidance of staff and professor Vesna, we found the artist, a kind, old woman. She was patient to explain her work to us and everyone who came later. Although with strong accent, her explanation was detailed and inspiring.

Every bottle contained a special smell with a different story. With almost ten different elements mixing in the water, the output was very strong. 

There were two smells left strong impression on my mind. One was #7734D7 She Bled, it was collected from a broken wine glass with bloody mud. Accompanying with the sound and smell, a vision came up to my mind spontaneously: an accident happened at dinner party that sharp glass lacerated your finger, with impulse of the unbearable pain, you dropped the glass on the muddy ground.

The other was #3925D8 Affection, the smell that invoked my hunger at that moment! The mixture of Vanilla and Ethyl Malthol produced a long lasting sweet smell.

I would definitely recommend this event and it might be the best one for me so far, since the conversation with true artists really helped me understand their artworks.

She Bled

This is the event with best interaction with artists in all five events and I really recommend if my friend would have a chance to explore the magic of smell!

Work Cited

"Creative Capital." Creative Capital. Creative Capital.com, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. <http://creative-capital.org/grantees/view/268/project:226>.
"Diary of Smell: Shards." Josely Carvalho. Joselycarvalho.net, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. <http://www.joselycarvalho.net/work_installations.htm>.
"Diary of Smells: Shards | UCLA Art | Sci Center Lab." Diary of Smells: Shards. UCLA Art | Sci Center Lab, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. <http://artsci.ucla.edu/?q=events/diary-smells-shards>.
"Josely Carvalho." Josely Carvalho. Joselycarvalho.net, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. <http://www.joselycarvalho.net/bio.htm>.
"Josely Carvalho (Brazilian) ." Josely Carvalho Biography and Links – Josely Carvalho on Artnet. Artnet.com, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. <http://www.artnet.com/artists/josely-carvalho/biography-links>.