Everything was beautiful Perfume work
Raewyn Turner 2015
Raewyn Turner. Poem and photograph woven together with visual programming environment Isadora
Everything was beautiful asks the audience to sniff the air and become awakened to the transforming power of perfume made to create feelings of love in a period of verisimilitude.
I used blue cypress for the aerial perspective it imparts--looking back into the distance of the years; amber, galbanum, a heart of old garden roses blended with lilacs that scented backyards in NZ in the 1950's; apricots and peaches because the real has been superseded by its copy.
( please see below for more on the ingredients used)
According to M Jean Kerléo: “perfumes are for a moment of pleasure and love not only for the person wearing the perfume but for others around that person”. In 2007 over a meeting and discussion with Jean Kerleo, creator of the Osmotheque perfume museum in Versailles I was inspired by my experience of Le Fruit Defendu. I had asked Jean Kerleo if I could sample a number of perfumes created during periods of war. Several years later I set out to create a version according to my memory of the fragrance over a period of eighteen months. Known as a 'condolence perfume' Le Fruit Defendu was significant to me as a reminder that the 1st world war was supposed to be the 'war to end all wars' which was an empty promise.
Commercial fragrance materials are created and designed within cultures that embody increasingly complex, yet chaotic social, political and economic systems. In a world where the construct of a ‘society’ has been re-termed an ‘economy’ with ‘markets’, this paradox masks the displacement of aspirations for bona fide freedom and democratic participation. The so-called free market system venerates profit and redefines citizens as consumers whose democratic options are increasingly diverted to choices between buying and selling.
Here's my question:
(My dog smells me he knows what I’m thinking)
If I put it on this perfume
And go out walking
Could I find the ideal life?
a world of peace, respect and fun?
Enough good food and clean water?
Freedom to share it?
Adequate housing, education, health care?
Freedom to say what we want?
Social, economic, political justice?
Co-operation?
The name of the perfume refers to “Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt”, a line from Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 novel, eluded to the post-war illusion of peace and to the imaginary power of the end, of wars that would never happen again.
In 2016 the perfume was exhibited on a bed of my 92 year old father’s white hair. Small show, The Vivian Gallery
About the perfume ingredients:
I'm a supporter of natural perfumery but I have included some synthetic fragrance materials in Everything was Beautiful
The full list of ingredients (as per :The ECLIP List) that I've used are listed below
Amber fleuressence, Sandalwood essential oil, Blue cypress essential oil, Lilac fleuressence, Rose de Mai Absolute, Methyl ionone alpha iso, Apricot natural essential oil, Peach key accord , Galbanum resinoid, Galbanum fleuressence, Benzaldehyde, Civet synthetic blend
Amber Fleuressence : https://www.perfumersworld.com/product/amber-fleuressence-6WV12277
Lilac Fleuressence: https://www.perfumersworld.com/product/lilac-fleuressence-6GK09255
Peach Key Accord: https://shop.perfumersapprentice.com/Images/sds/Key%20Accord%20Formula/peach.pdf
Galbanum Fleuressence: https://www.perfumersworld.com/product/galbanum-fleuressence-6GQ09095
Benzaldehyde ; https://www.perfumersworld.com/product/benzaldehyde-4FN00049
I do not use denatured alcohol
The ECLIP List: ETHYCAL COMPLETE LIST OF INGREDIENTS IN PERFUMES created by AbdeSsalaam Attar, the owner of La Via del Profumo. http://www.profumo.it/perfume/companies/guaranty_eclip_list.htm
An interview with the perfumer AbdeSsalaam Attar: http://www.fragrantica.com/news/A-New-Ethical-Standard-Towards-Perfume-Consumers-The-ECLIP-List-2482.html
More on natural Perfumery and The natural Perfumers Guild:http://www.naturalperfumers.com/definition.php
