DISTILLED ESSENCE

Sturt haaga gallery, los angeles, ca (2023)

Distilled Essence is a scent and sculpture installation showcasing transparent plant tissue planted inside decanters and hand-blown perfume vessels. Though the plants are recognizable by form, its ghostly bodies are void of biological markers and archived as homogeneous plant tissue. The works represent unity within diversity: the oneness of nature when stripped of individual identity and united by the universal experience of life and death.

⚘ Distilled Essence of Nature ⚘

Drawn to the world of alchemy, the glass works combine design elements from decanters, apothecary show globes, and perfume bottles. The glass urns, titled Memory of Mankind, contain invisible identities of nature captured through distillation - alcohol, medicine, and essential oils. 

Each vial contained a conceptual fragrant oil distilled from transparent flora. This aroma highlights a synthetically isolated molecule, gently fragrant and abundant in nature, yet seldom experienced in its pure form. Due to its ubiquitous presence in plant species, this scent symbolizes the Distilled Essence of the botanical kingdom.