Cosmescents Art Lab x Wang Guan-Jhen: Projects

A Crib Built for Scents
Text/ Wang Guan-Jhen

Inspired by my parents' herbal medicine shop and the scents of Cosmescents, the exhibition features Chinese herbal sachets with bases of cloves, mugwort, and mint, known for their calming effects of warding off evil, repelling insects, and nourishing the spirit. These are the scents I am most familiar with.

Additionally, there are functional and decorative house and human-shaped ceramics designed to hold and infuse scents. The idea of the house came to me while burning cedar wood, wishing the whole room could quickly be filled with a pleasant aroma, so I sculpted a smaller version. The headless ceramic figurines began as a playful thought of throwing heads, and once fired, they seemed to emit an unnamed scent from their poses.

Lastly, there are three paintings subtly connected to the nest and its scents. In truth, everything is a fragment of the nest, a visual manifestation of the lingering aroma.