Scent and Society: Middle East and North Africa
With Dana El Masri
Featuring Susu Attar, April Banks, Omar Offendum, John Steele and more
May 1 – 31, 2018
The IAO is thrilled to launch Scent and Society – a new bi-annual programming focus where we devote a month to exploring one geographical and socio-political area of our big beautiful world through the lens of aroma, food, history and art. Join us!
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ABOUT
During the month of May, 2018 the IAO joins forces with independent perfumer and writer Dana El Masri to present a series of workshops, talks, happenings and events exploring the multiplicity of traditions – and modern interpretations – of aromatic practices in the Middle East and North Africa.
Scent is a strong focal point in languages and cultures from MENA, and is deeply embedded in almost every aspect of living. Dana El Masri collaborates with artists, poets, and thinkers to lead an exploration of the roles of scent from regions and cultures as diverse as Iraq, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, the UAE, Oman, and others. Over the course of a month, we will present this broad look at the history of Arabic scent culture through hands-on workshops, historical and cultural talks, and artists-in-residence.
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ONGOING PROGRAMS
We’re pleased to present several ongoing programs throughout the month. Hours will be posted soon.
May 16 – June 8, 2018 – Exhibition: ‘Tracing the Arab World’ by Susu Attar
Susu Attar creates delicate paintings that explore images of family, place, and the hazy realm of perception. We’re excited to exhibit her thoughtful work in the window galleries and project space from May 16 to June 8.
May 1 – 31, 2018 – #POTM: Featuring Jazmin Saraï
We’re thrilled to highlight Dana El Masri’s new Middle East inspired ‘Tarab’ collection in our ongoing #POTM program. #POTM stands for “Perfumer of the Month”, a simple and descriptive name for this new program, which launched in January 2018 at the IAO.
May 1 – 29, 2018 – Perfumer in Residence: Dana El Masri
Dana el Masri will be on hand at the IAO to explore new formulations and play with our materials through the month of May. Drop in during our scheduled open hours to meet her, and learn all about what she’s working on. Dana’s Schedule:
Friday, May 11th: 10am-12pm
Saturday, May 12th: 10am-4pm
Tuesday, May 15th: 2-5pm
Friday, May 18th: 4-7pm
Tuesday, May 22nd: 2-5pm
Thursday, May 24th: 2-5pm
Friday, May 25th: 10am-12pm
And more…
Dana El Masri and her collaborators will pull together playlists, poems and texts for a wide-ranging exploration of their very favorite cultural aromatic touchpoints – or just things they love.
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EVENTS + CLASSES
Perfumer Dana El Masri collaborates with the IAO to present a broad variety of classes and events that touch upon various aspects of scent culture. From an ongoing installation to accord classes, explorations of social rituals and spoken word, the eclectic programs on offer in May cover historical and contemporary expressions of scent, with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa.
+ TUE., MAY 1 – SCENT AND SOCIAL RITUAL (TALK + SMELLING SESSION)
With Dana El Masri
Explore the role of scent in social ritual in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, the UAE, Oman and more. Dana will lead us on an anecdotal and historical ride through examples of ritualistic uses of scent, and the deep and troubling history of orientalism and fetishism vis-à-vis the Arabic world. Dana will also discuss contemporary projects exploring the ideas and feelings of exile, the every-present plight of the immigrant, and the realities of how people are living their identities in an increasingly fractured world (with a special exploration of Ashraf Osman’s ‘Scents of Exile’ project.) (Photo by Firoozg – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0)
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+ THU., MAY 3 – THE SACRED USE OF SCENT AND FRAGRANCE IN ANCIENT EGYPT
With John Steele
Renowned perfume materials expert John Steele presents an aromatic talk about the sacred use of fragrance in Ancient Egypt. During this era of antiquity, beginning from the Third Dynasty (2686BC), perfume was a magical medium of communication between humans and the gods. Together, we will explore the consciousness expanding use of fragrance in pharaonic Egypt through beautiful images (and aromatic materials) assembled over 25 years of research.
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+ SAT., MAY 12 – “O” CATEGORY ACCORDS INTENSIVE (WORKSHOP)
With Dana El Masri
Join us for a five hour intensive relating to the fragrance type formerly known as the “Oriental” category. Dana El Masri will provide a short history of the fragrance family, explore the classifications and sub-categories of the genre (floral, woody, and more), and explain the typical construction of the category, as well as the two main styles of contemporary interpretations. As a class we will explore trends and new innovations, new strategies for naming, and break into smaller groups for hands-on blending time, where we will do variations on the classic accords.
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+ TEA AFAR: JORDAN
With April Banks
Tea Afar is a nomadic storytelling experience that exchanges traditions across borders. Over tea, we share stories about one country – in this case, Jordan. Three storytellers and a tea master take us on a full sensory journey via photography, music and food. Each event is unique, intimate and undocumented.
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+ FRI., MAY 18 – OPENING RECEPTION: TRACING THE ARAB WORLD
With Susu Attar
Join us for an opening reception for Susu Attar’s one-person show. Artist Susu Attar creates delicate paintings that explore images of family, place, and the hazy realm of perception. We’re excited to exhibit her thoughtful work in the IAO’s window galleries and project space.
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+ SAT., MAY 19 – POETRY AND SCENT
With Omar Offendum
Co-hosted by Dana El Masri
Contemporary poet and performer Omar Offendum presents a scent and poetry workshop, exploring the deep roots of aroma in a curated selection of Arabic poems, which Omar will present and perform. Dana will join to lead smelling sessions where we will experience the materials as we discuss the poems.
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+ SAT., MAY 26 – ALL ABOUT OUD : ACCORDS WORKSHOP
With Dana El Masri + Ashley Eden Kessler
Dive deep into the richly aromatic and historic world of ouds in a co-hosted accords workshop with visiting perfumer Dana El Masri and Ashley Eden Kessler. Used historically in incense and scent, Oud is an important historic perfume material. In this class, participants will explore the components and rich aromatics of this remarkable material, and blend their own Oud accords in small breakout groups.
Time: 10:30 am to 3:30pm (with one hour break)
Cost: $185
Details: Attendance limited to 12 people.
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PARTICIPANTS
We wish to thank the collaborators and participants who came together to present this month of events, classes and happenings at the IAO.
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DANA EL MASRI – CURATOR
Dana El Masri is a perfumer & interdisciplinary artist. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies from Concordia University, and is classically trained in the art of Perfumery at the Grasse Institute of Perfumery. She is the creator & founder of Parfums Jazmin Saraï; a collection of perfumes inspired by songs and synaesthesia.
Dana’s work revolves around the connections between scent, music & culture. Whether in the form of custom-made perfumes and olfactory installations, Dana has worked with fellow perfumers, musicians, lifestyle brands, hotels, and art spaces. Her focus is on the importance of the role of scent in social interaction, on public education about the world of scent, and to bring perfumery as a form of artistic expression to the forefront. Her clients include Creatures of Comfort, Chef Thomas Keller, Nike, Pamela Love, Lunice, and more.
Dana completed a residency at the Institute for Art and Olfaction (IAO) in Los Angeles, 2014. She is the winner of both the Literary Award for ‘Reflection Eternal’ in Odou Magazine in London, 2015 & Perfumed Plume for ‘Flower Power’ in Reorient Mag & Cafleurebon in 2016. Dana has also been a judge in the Artisan category for the Art and Olfaction Awards for two years in a row. (2017 & 2018). Dana‘s projects for 2018 include scents for various artists, two scent-related exhibitions and new perfumes in the Jazmin Saraï collection.
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SUSU ATTAR
Susu Attar is a multi-media artist born in Baghdad and raised in Los Angeles. Her works draw from life in both cities, exploring the space between diasporic memory and the documentation of loss.
By highlighting the visual vocabulary of early home photography, the work distinguishes itself from today’s selfie culture where everything is perfectly posed. Utilizing paint to remind the viewer that what they see is not reality but an object, her work aims to move away from the false sense of actuality that photography often transmits and toward the possibilities of imagination.
In April 2017 Susu curated ICONIC Black Panther: Los Angeles at Gregorio Escalante Gallery in L.A.’s Chinatown for SEPIA Art Collective. The exhibition featured works from over 50 artists exploring the 50-year history of the Black Panther Party.
Susu received her Bachelors of Arts in Painting and Conceptual Information Art from San Francisco State University in 2007.
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APRIL BANKS
April Banks is a conceptual artist, traveler, and intentional in-betweener. She loves the leftovers that don’t fit into categories, the new spaces created in the overlaps and the beauty in the mundane. In her work she reveals, uncovers, questions what we often take for granted or believe as fact. Her work sits between photography, installation, writing, and collaborative experiments. It is immersive and process driven, often including travel to other countries to gather first-hand experience. She often learns to work with new mediums choosing what bests fits the subject. As a result, she is a master of nothing and her work in itself is always a question.
Currently, Banks pairs her international peregrinations with time travel through historical archives and memories, questioning what we think we know of the past and how it informs our cultural positioning systems. How history is told, who claims the authority to tell it and how does it endure over time? This most recent exploration began at the gap of a fuzzily conclusive ancestral DNA test and has now grown to include the unidentified, generically described, the altered, and the intentionally forgotten. This work is a kind of historical fiction that reveals the fiction in history.
Banks graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from Hampton University in Virginia in 1996 and a Master of Science in Environmental Design from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 1999. She has exhibited in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Daytona Beach, New Hampshire, Maryland, New York, Switzerland, Colombia, Brazil, United Arab Emirates and Senegal.
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OMAR OFFENDUM
Omar Offendum is a Syrian-American rapper / poet living in Los Angeles. Known for his unique blend of Hip-Hop & Arabic poetry, he’s been featured on prominent world news outlets, lectured at a number of prestigious academic institutions, collaborated with major museums & cultural organizations on several high-profile projects, and helped raise millions of dollars for various humanitarian relief groups. A graduate of the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture, he’s been able to carve a distinct path for himself as a thoughtful entertainer / activist able to speak to a multitude of relevant issues & diverse global audiences over the course of his decade-long career.
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JOHN STEELE
John Steele is in aromatic consultant, archaeologist and author who sources and distributes a select line of botanical essential oils and exotic floral absolutes from all over the world. He has served on the board of the American aroma therapy association and consulted on future trends in aroma therapy for the Ave a corporation. He has also lectured for the American Society of perfumers annual symposium and the fragrance foundation summit 2000 think tank in New York.
His chapter on “The Sacred Use of Fragrance in Ancient Egypt and Amazonian Shamanism”, first presented at the psychology of perfumery symposium at Warwick university, was published in fragrance: the psychology and biology of perfume (Elsevier, 1992). He has also presented these topics at workshops in Brazil, Canada, the second and third scientific holistic aroma therapy conferences in San Francisco and the second Australasian aroma therapy conference in Sydney, Australia.
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ASHLEY EDEN KESSLER
Ashley came to perfume from architecture and design. Her introduction to perfumery was through Sarah Horowitz Parfums, where she served first as an apprentice and later as a Junior Perfumer. She was smitten with the field. Dropping everything else, she immersed herself in study and practice. Her education in niche perfumery continued at LA’s Lucky Scent. Seeking a more formal education in the field, she moved to France to study at the prestigious Grasse Institute of Perfumery. There, she distinguished herself with her final brief- winning one of GIP’s coveted awards. After her studies, she returned to the U.S., having accepted a position as a Perfumer’s Assistant at Drom Fragrances International, one of the world’s top fine fragrance studios. After two years in that position, she was offered the chance to move back to Los Angeles as consultant for Sarah Horowitz’ new business initiative, Original Scent, and developing and teaching regular classes at the Institute for Art and Olfaction.
As the consulting director of education, Ashley comes to the IAO with a wealth of knowledge and experience in perfumery and the arts. She believes the IAO provides a perfect platform for new and exciting creative collaboration incorporating the science of olfaction and the art of scent. When she’s not working with the IAO, she runs a perfume consulting business called Studio Sentir, where she formulates luxury candles and fine fragrance.
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Questions about this program? Email us at hello@artandolfaction.com