Water lilies synthetic
cloned
rusted
plasticized
sterilized
dissected
virtual
metallic

Water lilies antimonetian

Luís Gordillo

I have never understood why the gamut of perfumes on the market repeatedly insist on the same sensation: the agreeable, the pleasant, the luxurious, the silky, the bewitched, the Oriental… all of it carries as to a night of abandon and passion,. to the deliriums and reveries of an adolescent in a nun’s school.

Imagine for a moment a man walking by you who smells strongly of a recently rained-on field; or a woman already advanced in age who smells of freshly cat grass; or a young girl, scarcely oat of her teens, who leaves in her wake an intense scent of the odor of ink, that of the old-time schools. There is, then, a very extensive field, almost infinite, of perfumes to suggest to manufacturers and businessmen.

I have always thought that the perfumes in use are common, repetitive, monotonous: any woman perfumed smells only… of perfume.

There is no impact, no violence, no adventure. There is no rupture with reality by which lo sink oneself and to go mad with the “other”. And, it’s so easy! It’s enough to smell life and bottle it. I’m told I should distinguish between odors and perfumes. I’d propose, notwithstanding, that, as in painting, literature, etc. -a great part of whose historic development consists in assimilating trivial and every day aspects and convening them into lovely ones- in the ambit of perfumes one would try to elevate odors to the rank of perfumes.

Not only would we have the scent of a recently rained -on field or grass freshly-cut or ink from an old-time school, but there would also be the odor of the sawmill, the leaves from the poplars rotting along the riverbanks, of shellfish, of old clothes zealously stored, of the mass, a book recently purchased, of oil painting, of turpentine, of wintry smoke in lost villages, etc., etc. a thousand etceteras.

There are so many odors!

And if we go even further if we sink into reality, we shall find tougher odors, more involved, like forbidden drags, which perhaps are only exhibitable in exceptional situations.

The creators of perfumes should dredge the infinite field and, still more, venture out into the field of evil.