DISTILLED ESSENCE

Sturt haaga gallery, los angeles ca

Distilled Essence is a scent and sculpture installation showcasing transparent botanical preserved inside decanters and hand-blown perfume vessels. Though all plants are recognizable by form, the ghostly bodies are decelluralized, void of biological attributes, and unified as singular plant tissue. The works represents Ikuta’s picture of an Afterlife, highlighting the universality of life and death.

“Perhaps in the afterlife, we are all the same”

The Distilled Essence glass works are inspired by the world of alchemy, combining design elements from decanters, apothecary show globes, and perfume bottles. The vessels represent containers for invisible identities of nature captured through distillation - alcohol, medicine, and essential oils. 

Each vial captures an imagined essential oil, distilled from Ikuta’s installations of transparent flora This aroma highlights the efflorescence of Linalool, a synthetically isolated molecule, gently fragrant and abundant in nature, yet seldom experienced in its pure form. Highlighting its ubiquitous presence in hundreds of plant species, the artist interprets this compound as the soul of the botanical kingdom.

“Merging science, scent, and art, this exhibit celebrates our intrinsically connected oneness with the natural world — a Distilled Essence of nature”