FAMILIAR FRAGRANCES
There is a growing tendency among humans to crave a connection with nature in urban environments and the experience of interacting with its elements through our senses. Being part of a city like New York, one tends to be consumed by its fast pace. My thesis project integrates textiles and fragrance as a medium to create an escape from the complex lifestyles we live in and to allow us to reconnect with nature indoors.
The ubiquitous nature of textiles and its applications is constantly progressing and evolving. We are inspired by the old, be it techniques, patterns, materials etc. and we allow that to inform the future we envision. Textiles seep deep into world history, culture and customs. It speaks of our past, our present and our, future. How our landscapes are constantly evolving and with it the materials available; How craft is transitioning with technology, yet the growing necessity of retaining the handmade. Can textiles today not only provide external utility, but also help with internal well-being? Can it interact with all our senses? Can textiles today provide an olfactory experience? An experience that can trigger relaxation, familiarity, uplift one’s mood and condense time and distance. Scent allows us to relook and reinvent the function of textiles and the interaction, we have with them.
Playing with six different fragrance and colour palettes, each conjuring a different memory of a person, place or a moment in time. Jasmine, Citronella, Clove, Vetiver, Sandalwood and Rose- each bearing a strong connection with my South Indian roots. The smell of roses in the flower market close to home, the sweet-smelling jasmine we adorn our hair at weddings, the wafting aroma of spices from the kitchen, the scent of the rain hitting the parched summer earth. My work explores patterns and geometry through embroidery, handwoven techniques using hand-spun recycled sari silk from India, dyeing with natural pigments, such as madder, sandalwood, turmeric and indigo and embellishing with coated yarns and scented beads.
A whiff of work in progress
