Collaboration with Lush Belfast
So i'm sure you are all wondering why I am only writing about this now. Well while I am currently busy creating a whole new collection of work I wanted to reflect on some things I have done over the past year and this one in particular stood out to me as I got a great response from it. So I had the wonderful opportunity of collaborating with Lush Belfast for the Perfume is Art event. The idea behind the event was to create a response to a perfume of your choice and respond to it through art. For me this was something quite different and the perfume I choose was Devil's Nightcap.
For me Devil's Nightcap has a very melancholy scent. It has a real floral scent something that resembles a walk through the forest. On the other hand the aftermath is a really striking intense sharp scent, refreshing but intense. When thinking about the work I create I felt this perfume in particular really fitted with the work I create as there is that even balance of the two sides.
So the two pieces I brought along to the event was my two millinery pieces Man On The Moon and Dark Glamour which of coarse pays homage to the description of the perfume itself. When creating the two pieces in response to the fragrance I wanted to highlight the two sides. With Man On The Moon, I responded to the dreamy inspiring freeing of the mind, similar to that of drifting into a dreamlike state of mind and getting lost. The man on the moon is a metaphor making reference to myself as I drift into my dreams with a lot on my mind, whether it be art, emotions, feelings or thoughts. The two stars are of personal significance to me as the number 2 is a number which is special to me.
With Dark Glamour, I wanted to bring out the more devilish Gothic ambience evoked with the fragrance. Getting lost in the woods, the melancholy glamour, being enchanted with an intense feeling of lush richness. In the headdress there is a little garden, which references finding something intriguing when being lost. The glitter skull is a metaphor for the quote 'all that glitters is not gold' , all is not how it seems.
The feedback I received from this was tremendous. When introducing the pieces at first to the public I didn't explain the pieces I wanted to see what other people's interpretations were. This was interesting as it allowed me to view the pieces in an alternative perspective.
In conclusion what I found so intriguing about this collaboration was how something so simple as a scent or a fragrance can inspire so many things and have so many interpretations. Sometimes simplicity is the key to creation, a solution to a problem, an answer to a question. Fascinating !
