Arboreal laboratory

Experiments into scent
In mythology the Gods always smelt good

The installation title references the god Pan, who as the primordial renegade, smelt bad. His animal presence was dismissed by Rene Descartes, and our relationalship with the green environment irrevocably changed as a result of this.

The installation involves four seemingly empty glass vessels (half alembic, and half perfume bottle in style) presented on clear plinths.

The vessels contain four scent moments in King’s Wood across the seasons, and were created in collaboration with Quest International using headspace technology (a highly sophisticated device which analyses and allows synthetic replication of smells). The results of this were combined by a perfumer, Dominique Le Lievre.

Edwina fitzPatrick

Biography
Edwina is a London based artist. She is currently Course Director for the MA Fine Art Course at Wimbledon College of Art. She is involved with Creative Transitions, a cross CCW group of artists, researchers and students who aim to develop new models for a sustainable university.

Research statement
Edwina is a U.K. based artist, whose work explores the living environment. Her artwork involves mutability and change.

The art projects explore what happens when 'grey' and 'green' environments intersect, and how human interactions have and are affecting the nature/culture/ecology of a place. They also reflect upon how climate change may affect this delicate balance.

The art projects are created through research and discourse. They celebrate narratives and conversations, and are often deeply informed by the history of a place. They are inclusive through the involvement of local individuals.

Edwina also collaborates with experts across a range of disciplines. To date these have included horticulturalists, biodiversity experts, engineers, architects, perfumers, foresters, and composers.

The artworks shown on this website are presented both on site (as permanent or temporary installations), and in galleries.

Edwina is currently undertaking an AHRC funded collaborative practice based PhD. Studying part time, she is working with Glasgow School of Art and the Forestry Commission at Grizedale in the Lake District, to explore the mutable and transient nature of artwork which is sited in, or references, the green environment. Edwina’s research is driven by practice-based experiments, using the strategy of becoming and being lost herself, in order to explore what may be lost.

As forests are both carbon sinks and carbon stores, part of this research is looking at how anxiety about climate change is influencing both artists’, and their audiences’ engagement with sited work, particularly in a woodland context. Her findings will be contextualized by international research into sited art projects, which reference the green environment.