Taking the brand’s four existing scents, Amber, Gorse, Samphire and Tonka – as well as a soonto-be-launched fifth fragrance Atlas – Mengham created a series of resin sculptures, which will be displayed in The Conran Shop on Marylebone High Street for two weeks from 15 to 25 September, as part of the London Design Festival 2016.
Mengham has transformed the individual notes of the fragrances into unique combinations of colours, angles and visual effects. The ocean-reminiscent freshness of Samphire is evoked by the way the light plays through layers of translucent resin; the crisp citrus of gorse become a clear yellow hue; and the eponymous beans of Tonka are represented in speckles of slate.
The roots of the exhibition reach back to December 2015, when Laboratory Perfumes founder Aaron Firth was looking for artists capable of representing the nuances of scent visually. Upon discovering Mengham’s unique prism sculptures, he has struck by how they were “modern, angular and with multiple facets – like a fragrance”. Zuza was asked to explore the concept further, resulting in five remarkable pieces that take advantage of the full spectrum of visual and textural possibilities afforded by resin.