Dear Laura,
Thank you! I was so delighted to host your exhibition Geosmin & Rosaphen as part of Sea Foam (the domestic gallery housed in my second floor apartment on the Westend of Toronto, ON) in February 2020. The dinner party I hosted in honour of your artwork was the last time anyone besides myself and my roommate entered our dwelling. So strange, only a month later I won’t dare invite anyone in. But that evening I answered the door and welcomed your friends and peers, most of whom I didn’t know; we ate olives and drank and talked about the making of fragrance, Perfume by Patrick Suskind, nature in the city, and why lotion smells like roses.
Due to the Covid pandemic my roommate and myself became the sole viewership of your artwork. While I’m disappointed more people didn’t get a chance to see and smell the four scents you composed, I am thankful we had your artwork to keep us company during the early days of the lockdown. It was your cmyk screen print of a magazine advertisement published by the International Flavors & Fragrances, which depicts two red roses within a boiling flask that received the bulk of my attention in those eerie mind-foggy days.
The image illustrates headspace technology, a process designed to capture odor molecules without harming the botanical specimens. This small print became an icon of our days spent homebound, and of our beloved sunroom. We lay on the worn couches - two parallel lethargic bodies, eyes fixed on the pair of red roses. This object couplet standing in for the ongoing embrace of science and nature. In the evening we drank Campari and when we had nothing to say we turned towards the brick wall painted white and rested our eyes on your print. Having somewhere to place one’s eyes is an often overlooked gift.
Thank you again
Ashley
Ashley Culver: instagram.com/ashley.diana.culver
Laura Demers: instagram.com/hellolaurad
Images and text are courtesy of Ashley Culver
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