Artist Anicka Yi is taking her exploration of scent to a new level: consumer fragrance.
This November she will launch Biography, a line of three limited-edition fragrances, exclusively at Dover Street Market in New York and Los Angeles. Created in collaboration with perfumer Barnabé Fillion, the line was inspired by women often forgotten in history — including Japanese Red Army leader Fusako Shigenobu, and Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut — and aims to subvert traditional notions of femininity. Each fragrance bottle was created with microbial, animal and industrial elements, a reflection of Yi’s larger olfactory installation and sculptural practice.
Each will each retail for $250 in an edition of 1,000 bottles.
The fragrances will launch on Nov. 21 with a site-specific installation performance. Yi partnered with the Monell Chemical Senses Center and on the evening of the launch will unveil a “smell synthesizer,” which will digitally mix smells on demand for one night only.
Yi is represented by 47 Canal and Gladstone Gallery, which exhibited her new work in a solo show, “We Have Never Been Individual,” in Brussels earlier this year. She was also the 2017 recipient of the Hugo Boss Prize.
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