Perfume Collection Captures Smells That Could Be Destroyed by Climate Change

Sometimes, we take the little things for granted, and we don’t get a chance to stop and smell the roses. While roses should be around for a little while longer, artist Catherine Young has worked in collaboration with Swiss perfume company Givaudan to create a collection of fragrances that we may lose due to climate change.

The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store (or TEMPS for short) features eight perfumes in the scent of Coasts, Coffee, Honey, Wine, Eucalyptus, Peanuts, Ice and Hardwood Trees. Young approached Givaudan with the smells that she wanted to capture and the feelings or memories that she wanted to evoke, and the scientists went from there.

The perfumes are held in beautiful glass bottles, each with a hummingbird on the label. "Because of its speed, the hummingbird is known as a messenger and stopper of time," writes Young on her website. "It is also a symbol of love, joy and beauty. The hummingbird is also able to fly backwards, teaching us that we can look back on our past.

This could be the saddest perfume collection ever produced. And while it's not likely to flip the Ian Plimers of the world into acting on climate change, there's no denying it is a poetic way to communicate the message. Scent is renowned for its ability to transport us back to a past memory. Think of all the things we stand to forget if we can no longer visit them via olfactory highway.

Unfortunately, the scents are not for sale. TEMPS is part of Young’s solo exhibition The Apocalypse Project, held at the Mind Museum in the Philippines. This is also not the first time that Young has used scents as part of her artistic work. In graduate school Young created a book called An Olfactory Memoir of Three Cities: Manila, New York, Barcelona, which featured smells from three cities Young had previously lived in.

Via Fast Company.