On August the 23, there was a beautifully crafted article by Helen Greenwood in the Good Weekend about Jean-Claude Ellena, a master perfumer. Personally I own very few perfumes and I do not have any formal understanding of the production elements behind the making of perfume. However, I was intrigued by Ellena's creative process and the more I read about the ideas and concepts that lead Ellena towards a new scent,the more I found that it could be linked to the choreographic process in dance.
"It's not a matter of combining odours but of creating relationships between odours. The materials of fragrences don't mix like colours to create a new colour. They co-exist and continue to express themselves individually, while at the same time forming a new odour, a new meaning". This is a beautiful thought. I love the notion that the many different scents in one perfume have not simply been smished together, but have been introduced to one another and the resulting conversation between them produces a new odour. It is said that humans danced before we spoke. Then it should be possible to insert the words "movement" and "dance" into the above quotation. For me, a piece of pure dance is most satisfying when there seems to be a running thread between the varied movements, that in turn creates the illusion of a danced conversation, (even in a solo performance!). When you think of the best kind of conversation, it seems to occur when there has been a meeting at a shared concept that produces new thoughts and discussion related to similar concepts. So even though there may be extremely different movements or scents in a particular creation, they must be able to "co-exist" with each other in order to successfully express a new, cohesive idea.
"All art is an illusion...Illusion can be stronger than reality". I could not agree more. Ellena does not attempt to recreate a true smell in his perfumes...he evokes the notion of a scent in order to tell a story through fragrence. How is it possible to tell a story through fragrence, dance or even music? It is through weaving "notions" into your creation that ignites the imagination of the beholder, whose personal associations evoke a story in their mind. That is what art should be about...encouraging others to embark upon some kind of inner quest that either ends with a newly formed idea or another question. That is why "the idea of tea" is so much more interesting than the actual scent of tea, as everyones experience of "tea" is different.
This brings me to a recent bugbear of mine, revolving around those in society who believe performative art should be completely comprehensive and that the use of illusion or whimsy is old hat with no part to play in our compact, computer literate, reality driven modern society. Personally I think we could all do with a little more illusion in our lives, especially with the phenomenan of reality TV that has perched the banal and everyday happenings of life on such a high pedestal. We are swamped by reality each day of our lives, from traffic jams to taxes and now when you switch on the box or surf the net, you are more than likely to be hit by what is believed to be the entertaining side of reality...bitching, cheating and the depraved acts of desperate people.
I am a whimsy addict. Daydreams tickle my life, and when I am offered the opportunity to experience someone elses vision (be it through scent or performance), I'll dive right in. Somewhere scattered in the illusion are realities worth finding.
