Archive
M:ST 3.5
Scentbar: Fragrances for Troubled Times
Artists: Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan (Winnipeg)
Dates: October 3 – 6, 2007
Venue: Art Central
Presented by: M:ST, The New Gallery, EMMEDIA
Renowned Winnipeg-based performance artists Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan presented a 4-day performance installation entitled Scentbar: Fragrances for Troubled Times. Set up in the atrium of Art Central (a downtown complex housing numerous commercial galleries), this mock-boutique installation served over 130 “clients” during its 4-day run. Visitors were invited to answer a series of interview questions about their memories, hopes, and fears. The results of these interviews were then used to create customized fragrances for each client. However, the spa-like atmosphere and clean aesthetic of the installation, were contrasted with “the promotional video of malodourous disasters, and by the product itself, which draws upon ambivalent memory-evoking contemporary scents such as rental car and light industry.”
In a collaboration that has spanned well over a decade, Winnipeg multi-disciplinary artists Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan have created a body of internationally acclaimed work that addresses feminist, lesbian, and social concerns with biting wit. www.fingerinthedyke.ca
Alongside the performance, M:ST also commissioned and published an essay by local author Anthea Black to provide critical context and an in-depth response to the work.
Mountain Standard Time Performative Art Festival Society
P.O. Box 22056 Bankers Hall R.P.O, Calgary, AB CA T2P 5G7
PH. 403.837.6678 email: info@mstfestival.org