Gallery curator’s nose for success

Apr 14 2008 by Paul James, The Journal

ART fans heading to a Sunderland art gallery later this month might not get much to see – but there will be plenty to smell.

The Reg Vardy Gallery at Sunderland University is abandoning paintings and sculptures for If There Ever Was, a two-month exhibition where visitors will instead be invited to experience a selection of odours.

The project combines science with a certain amount of artistic licence to produce smells that include the sun, communism, Cleopatra’s hair, the blast of Hiroshima, the Mir space station and a perfume from 1555.

It is the latest innovative exhibition to be put on at the Reg Vardy gallery and is the idea of curator Robert Blackson who thought of the idea of re-creating a variety of smells 18 months ago. Since then he has collaborated with a number of botanists and perfumers.

Robert said: “The impetus behind my idea is the importance of smell as a sense and the fact that it can stand alone from all other senses.

“I chose these particular smells through research and because of their cultural and historical significance to our society.”

Robert hopes people who visit the exhibition will experience something different to an image-based exhibition. He said: “People usually go to a gallery not knowing what they will get out of it. I would like this exhibition to give a different experience to this situation as smell is primal and integral to human beings.”

James Wong, a botanist at Botanic Gardens Conservation International has collaborated on the exhibition by recreating the smells of four extinct flowers. He said: “When Robert first approached me I thought he must be kidding me but it was actually surprisingly easy.

“It was a matter of trawling through research of the extinct flowers, capturing the smell of flowers which are closely related to the extinct ones then adding an artistic flavour.

“The exhibition is completely innovative and crazy although it has a scientific grounding and people will love it. In terms of botany, I hope the exhibition will highlight the plight of flowers and plants nearing extinction.”

Robert hopes the exhibition will draw in the crowds and has invited members of The Royal National Institute of Blind People to experience the smells.

Accompanying the exhibition is a scratch and sniff book for £12 which will contain all of the smells on show.

Northern Gas Networks – which runs the North East’s gas pipes and uses scent to help people discover gas leaks – is sponsoring the exhibition, while fragrance houses Symrise, Givaudan and International Flavours and Fragrances have all donated scents.

The exhibition will run from April 29 to June 6 and entry is free.

On May 20 from 1-3pm there will be a “draw what you smell” feature where visitors are invited to convert the smells into pictures.