Perfume : a Sensory Journey Through Contemporary Scent

Confusing exhibition at Somerset House looking at ten perfumes and what makes them unique.

Once I understood the pattern for the show I quite enjoyed it but I was so confused at the beginning I found myself getting angry at the vapidness of it. If the guide in the first room had explained a bit more about what was going to happen rather than just thrusting a chart at me saying “It’s for social media. It starts here in room 1” I might have stood a better chance. It turned out it wasn’t room one it was a introductory room and the sheet was to get you thinking about your first impressions of each scent and whether that changed when you knew more about it.

OK so once I’d worked it out this show was quite clever. There were five rooms each with a visual representation of a specific scent and small bags or balls to sniff the scent from. This was followed by a room told you want the five scents were, how they had been developed and what they were made up of.  This then repeated with five new scents. Until you realised all this it seemed like strange, pretentious installations.

My favourite section was at the end where there was a perfume laboratory set up and a man who showed you how a perfume is made up of three different tones and how they work together. He sprayed each tone on a strip of paper and got you to smell them individually and in combination with each other. I might have got more from the show if that had come first. I’d recommend trying to find a quiet time as I suspect in the school holidays it will be quite busy and hard to get the best from this section.

Closes on 17 September 2017

Review
Evening Standard

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