A Day as an Olfactive Artist

BY JESSE WAKENSHAW

In this contemplative diary entry, Australian artist Jesse Wakenshaw shows us how a scent concept can evolve from one beast to another as we go about our daily lives.

Beyond my work in the studio, I take time for myself, pondering the pavement, roaming the city, strolling the beach. As I walk, my olfactory receptors are always firing. I can’t seem to truly step away.

One day, by the harbour, I came across a trawling net left in the sun to cook. Numerous scent profiles emerged, the strongest being a gassy, sun-ripened seaweed and algae accord. My thoughts drifted toward dimethyl sulfide or perhaps hydrogen sulfide– briny, sulphuric, with hints of eggy gas and sweet corn.

Image courtesy of the author.

I’m still yet to properly use dimethyl sulfide in a seaside accord. It leans intensely creamed corn-like to me. It’s strangely comforting, slightly nauseating, almost gag inducing if pushed too far.

On another day, I visited the fruit market. It was hyperstimulating– both olfactively and visually. Overripe fruit and vegetables beneath faded nylon canopies, subdued spices lingering softly in the background with pure ease.

Image courtesy of the author.

Returning to the studio, I began reevaluating work I had previously abandoned, re-invigorated by these everyday encounters. While revisiting one particular scent, I realised it was telling me the complete opposite story from where it began. I had originally named the experiment Happy Hour, though it felt far more like Mechanic Hour.

An erotic, mechanic love story breaking stereotypes: grease-stained overalls, heavy cologne, hot metal, swollen vinyl seats baking in the sun. The scent reminds me of the interior of my old Jeep Cherokee– engine grease, worn leather, stale cologne trapped in heat. Masculine in a slightly ridiculous way that borders on cinematic.

Maybe my senses were perfectly aligned, or maybe I was simply craving some ecstatic form of release. Either way, the modification is now called Mechanic Hour.

Image courtesy of the author.

In the end, these wandering observations always seem to return to the same place: scent as memory, fantasy, and contamination.

The everyday slowly mutates into something erotic, strange, and wearable.

Jesse Wakenshaw is an artist working across olfaction, sculpture, and installation, based in Sydney on Gadigal Land, Australia. Through scent-based works and immersive environments, Wakenshaw explores memory, residue, time, and emotional perception. His practice offers not simply fragrances, but atmospheric experiences - moments of introspection, connection, and quiet beauty. Using scent as both material and language, his work considers the invisible ways aroma shapes emotion, memory, and human experience.

A Day as an Olfactive Artist

BY JESSE WAKENSHAW In this contemplative diary entry, Australian artist Jesse Wakenshaw shows us how a scent concept can evolve from one beast to another as we go about our daily lives.

BY JESSE WAKENSHAW

In this contemplative diary entry, Australian artist Jesse Wakenshaw shows us how a scent concept can evolve from one beast to another as we go about our daily lives.