Exhibition allows visitors to experience interplay between visual and olfactory art

HÀ NỘI – Have you ever come across a scent that takes you back to the memories of the places you’ve been before?

Olfactory Odyssey Exhibition 2024 – Scent & Art – an exhibition in Hà Nội – presents a collection of fragrance and scented paintings created by perfumer Huỳnh Hải Yến and her peer, Australian scent designer Nadia Vitlin. The collection is a commemoration of the various lands and places that the two scent artisans have visited.

The painting ‘Temple in the Jungled Mountains of Taiwan reflects the mystical ambiance of peaks with a perfume tree, magnolia leaf, black agarwood and white musk to create an exotic and meditative fragrance that embodies serenity and spirituality. VNS Photo Thúy Hằng

Vitlin has unveiled her collection entitled Metropolis Oasis that she created while travelling around different countries in Asia, in the hotels that she stayed in.

“Each piece is like a little window into a type of paradise. I created these from real places using local ingredients from those places so each painting has its own smell. Inside each painting and each perfume has the local ingredients from that place,” the Sydney-based artist said.

The paintings will take visitors to different places around Australia and Asia, including the wetlands in western New South Wales, the natural lakes of Kakadu and the hillside gardens of Hong Kong Island.

Australian scent designer Nadia Vitlin talks with a visitor about her creations. Photo courtesy of MetaScent

Explaining the name Metropolis Oasis, Vitlin said that the idea came from how you feel as you stand in front of the painting.

“I wanted to create a little break, a little oasis in a place of rest from the bustling city outside. You no longer hear the sounds of the traffic. You’re away from the hustle and bustle of the city and you can see the colours of your eyes and smell the scent with your nose. So it’s kind of like a four dimensional experience,” she said.

For Yến – her 12 paintings and 11 perfume works presented at the exhibition were inspired by her newest book Hành Trình Những Mùi Hương (Journey through Scents) published earlier this year.

Perfumer Huỳnh Hải Yến. Photo courtesy of MetaScent

According to her, each fragrance and painting captures the essence and memories of a particular destination, allowing visitors to be transported to those places through the senses of smell and sight.

“The fragrances and paintings serve as a means for me to revisit and relive the experiences and impressions that I accumulated during my travels. By combining perfume artistry and visual art, the collection aims to evoke the nostalgia and sentiments associated with exploring new environments and cultures,” said Yến.

As the first author of Vietnamese-language books on fragrance, Yến has launched the book Ốc Đảo Mùi Hương (Island of Scents) in 2015, followed by Bí Mật Những Mùi Hương (Secrets of Fragrances) in 2016, and Hành Trình Những Mùi Hương (Journey through Scents) in 2024.

The Olfactory Odyssey Exhibition 2024 – Scent & Art allows visitors to experience interplay between visual and olfactory art. Photo courtesy of MetaScent

Yến also has created fragrances for Paris Fashion Week 2019 and Melbourne Fashion Week 2021 and 2023. Her creations have been named by Fragrances of the World in their publication, which has been regarded as the encyclopedia of the global fragrance industry. In February, she was a judge for the Asian Perfume Awards held by the Asia Perfume Foundation in Hong Kong.

Alongside paintings and fragrant creations by two perfumers, the Scent & Art exhibition also showcases landscape paintings by Nguyễn Thanh Quang – a self-taught painter.

Quang has captured the essence of the natural world through his vivid, lyrical brushstrokes, conveying a sense of tranquility and harmony. His love for nature has been reflected in each work, making his ‘poetries in colour’ gentle and serene.

At the Scent & Art exhibition, his paintings Châu Thổ (Delta), Miền Xanh (Green Land), and Tây Bắc (The Northwest) have been exhibited alongside the fragrance works by perfumer Yến, allowing visitors to experience the interplay between visual and olfactory art.

The Olfactory Odyssey Exhibition 2024 – Scent & Art – will be open to public until August 17, from 10am to 17pm at Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi, 56 Lý Thái Tổ Street, Hoàn Kiếm District, Hà Nội. VNS