Installation (1970) at Pomona College Extrait de Parfum
Installation (1970) at Pomona College is a conceptual fragrance shaped by absence, material, and the shifting boundaries between presence and perception. Inspired by Michael Asher’s seminal site-specific work of the same name, this scent is not a literal evocation of the gallery, but a meditation on space itself — the architecture of atmosphere, the invisible tensions of construction, and the residual warmth of bodies just departed.
The composition is rooted in warm, tactile resins: guaiacwood, Peru balsam, tolu balsam, and benzoin resinoid create a structure that feels carved from light-aged varnish and oiled wood panels — clean, golden, faintly medicinal, yet softened by time. These resins are not decorative; they are elemental, foundational. They hold space rather than fill it.
Labdanum and patchouli fractions introduce a subtle textural tension — a sense of shadow moving along clean walls. There’s a dry, leathery density here, but rendered with extreme restraint, like a whisper at the edge of perception. Oak absolute grounds the composition in something earthy but dry, like sun-warmed dust on concrete, or the smell of woodwork exposed to heat and thought.
Running through it all is the dissonant warmth of whiskey, vanilla absolute, and tonka bean. But here, these familiar gourmand notes are pared down to abstraction — the memory of heat, the ghost of sweetness. A delicate thread of caramel rises and vanishes, restrained by the dry edge of clove and the aromatic snap of clary sage.
The base holds the soft hum of golden ambergris and a gentle dose of deer musk — lending warmth without overt sensuality, a low-frequency resonance that feels human but not intimate. These animalics do not provoke. They steady the composition like breath in a still room.
This is not a fragrance that unfolds in stages, but one that inhabits a space — spatial, structural, meditative. It’s less about sillage and more about saturation: scent as an installation, quiet and total. A perfume for those who love the smell of museums, untreated wood, light filtered through blinds, the cooling hum of white walls after a summer crowd has cleared.
Installation (1970) at Pomona College is a conceptual fragrance shaped by absence, material, and the shifting boundaries between presence and perception. Inspired by Michael Asher’s seminal site-specific work of the same name, this scent is not a literal evocation of the gallery, but a meditation on space itself — the architecture of atmosphere, the invisible tensions of construction, and the residual warmth of bodies just departed.
The composition is rooted in warm, tactile resins: guaiacwood, Peru balsam, tolu balsam, and benzoin resinoid create a structure that feels carved from light-aged varnish and oiled wood panels — clean, golden, faintly medicinal, yet softened by time. These resins are not decorative; they are elemental, foundational. They hold space rather than fill it.
Labdanum and patchouli fractions introduce a subtle textural tension — a sense of shadow moving along clean walls. There’s a dry, leathery density here, but rendered with extreme restraint, like a whisper at the edge of perception. Oak absolute grounds the composition in something earthy but dry, like sun-warmed dust on concrete, or the smell of woodwork exposed to heat and thought.
Running through it all is the dissonant warmth of whiskey, vanilla absolute, and tonka bean. But here, these familiar gourmand notes are pared down to abstraction — the memory of heat, the ghost of sweetness. A delicate thread of caramel rises and vanishes, restrained by the dry edge of clove and the aromatic snap of clary sage.
The base holds the soft hum of golden ambergris and a gentle dose of deer musk — lending warmth without overt sensuality, a low-frequency resonance that feels human but not intimate. These animalics do not provoke. They steady the composition like breath in a still room.
This is not a fragrance that unfolds in stages, but one that inhabits a space — spatial, structural, meditative. It’s less about sillage and more about saturation: scent as an installation, quiet and total. A perfume for those who love the smell of museums, untreated wood, light filtered through blinds, the cooling hum of white walls after a summer crowd has cleared.