Essential Oils (for Alberta)
Essential Oils (for Alberta), 2016
archival inkjet prints, 55.88 x 81.28 cm, ed. of 3
Collection of City of Calgary Public Art Program
This work was developed during Open AiR, a twelve-week residency with The City of Calgary's Public Art program, exploring connections to health, natural resources, and place through enfleurage. As part of my residency, I co-facilitated plant walks and workshops focusing on smell and plants and their edible and medicinal properties. I explored these concepts through enfleurage, a process used to extract fragrances or essential oils from plants and botanical materials. Essential Oils (for Alberta) is a series of ten photographs documenting my experiments with the enfleurage process. I used botanical (and other materials such as coffee beans and socks) from both communities that were donated, purchased or foraged.
A series of plant walks was developed and facilitated in collaboration with artist, herbalist, botanist, and educator Latifa Pelletier-Ahmed, owner of Latifa's Herbs and co-owner of ALCLA Native Plants to develop plant walks in downtown Mohkinstsis (Calgary). On the walks, we look at plants, many known as weeds, often overlooked in urban environments. We discuss identifying plants using principles of botany and our senses, including touch and smell. Participants learn about the edible and medicinal properties of the plants and what plants teach us about the environments in which they grow. Aromatherapist Deanna Russell facilitated a workshop on aromatherapy and scent.
Photographs of workshops and plant walks by Bryce Krynski. All ten photographs in the Essential Oils (for Alberta) series are by Alana Bartol.
