A Place in Memory
(2024 - 2025)
A Place in the Memory is a work that explores the connection between scent and memory, using smell as a medium to evoke the essence of a place. This piece is part of my ongoing research on the sense of home through the senses, specifically investigating how certain scents can trigger personal and collective memories.
This iteration shows four of the scents that personally brings me back home: rosemary, eucalyptus, corn, and magnolia flower. These fragrances are deeply embedded in my memory, tied to landscapes and daily life. Through a process inspired by alchemical transformation, I extract and distill these scents into oils, capturing their essence as a way of materializing memory.
The work is arranged in delicate glass vessels that mimic the process of distillation—an act of transformation that echoes both scientific and ancestral methods of preservation and extraction. The seeds of each plant are metaphorically and physically broken down, turned into dust, and then reconstituted as olfactory memory. This process not only references the materiality of scent but also speaks to the ephemeral nature of memory itself—how it lingers, shifts, and resurfaces through sensory experience.
By engaging with alchemy, I draw a parallel between ancient practices of extracting essences and the way our minds distill fragments of the past into memory. In this way, A Place in the Memory becomes both a personal exploration and an invitation for viewers to connect with their own memories through scent, prompting them to reflect on how smell shapes their understanding of home and belonging.