Serene Green
Jesse Wakenshaw
30.05.24 - 03.06.24
Inhale green, mind serene.
Continuing his work as an experimental olfactive artist, Jesse Wakenshaw plays on our body’s visceral emotional tie to scent and colour. In this chapter, Wakenshaw explores the positive experience and the profound impact green-leaning aromas and hues have on our sensory and emotional landscape.
The exhibition focuses on two primary components that have been creatively reinterpreted into various compositions. The first component is Galbanum, a bitter-green gum resin known for its distinctive green, stem-like aroma. The second is Iso Butyl Quinoline, an aroma chemical characterised by its intense green, leathery, and root-like scent.
These elements serve as the foundational notes for the olfactory experience, showcasing the versatility and depth of green fragrances through their complex and evocative profiles. Galbanum's fresh and sharp greenness pairs intriguingly with the robust, earthy qualities of Iso Butyl Quinoline, offering a diverse range of sensory impressions in the exhibition's different accords.
A day spent in the greenhouse.
That instinct to take a deep breath around crushed foliage.
Watery cucumber over weary eyes.
Bathing outside under a canopy of green.
Bitter green foliage crushed between the feet.
Green is a cleanser for Wakenshaw, drawing from his own experiences living with OCD and anxiety often struggling with the actions and feelings of rumination. In Serene Green, scent is an invisible cleansing force helping to clear rumination that one can hold stagnant in the mind.
Wakenshaw tactfully uses the whimsical qualities of scent to dive deep into the idea of wellness within OCD. The room is overdosed with green, overtly suggesting, akin to the relentless compulsion to scrub oneself and touch surfaces repeatedly.
Wakenshaw’s work plays on this instantaneous physical and mental exercise, creating tiny moments of reprieve within the scented pieces.
These tiny, whimsical interludes offer a soothing escape, much like bending down to smell the crisp aroma of foliage.
Here the audience is encouraged to come up close and personal to experience the calming tranquillity of green, tapping into the intrinsic bond between scent and emotion.
A synthetic garden awaits.
Words by Natasha Graham @UNSW MCCL
Photography courtesy of Jesse Wakenshaw and Green Floor Gallery.