Olfactory artwork — Per fumum sylvestre

Per fumum sylvestre by Alexandra Bachand is an olfactory artwork that stimulates the sense of smell.

With Per fumum sylvestre, the artist presents a fragile forest exuding green, airy, and smoky notes. A scent of undergrowth emerges, composed notably of vetiver roots—a dense, warm, and profound raw material that evokes incense.

 [ OLFACTORY ART / ARTISTIC APPROACH OF THE ARTIST ]


Per fumum sylvestre
2024 /

Olfactory artwork
1 scent, mixed materials
79 x 104 x 5 cm


by Alexandra Bachand
Artist & Perfumer 

Art Galery Espace Dialogue

In her olfactory installation Per fumum sylvestre—Latin for "through forest smoke"—artist Alexandra Bachand explores the disappearance of life, as the boreal forest burns more each year, driving away an increasing number of birds and destabilizing the balance of our ecosystem.

In the face of these major climate upheavals, the artwork questions regeneration, as the forest landscape becomes shrouded in smoke.

"In the barren forest,
a solitude wanders,
scent of ash and
vanished rebirth."


Context —

I create olfactory art installations that elevate perfume as a major artistic medium—one that I shape, often in support of a symbolic form of expression. The visual serves as a metaphor, placed at the service of scent.

I explore the connections between botany, time, history, and memory.

This relief wall artwork complements the olfactory installation Do you hear the canary's song ?, which Bachand presents as part of the exhibition Balade en forêt at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Sherbrooke.

—Alexandra

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