JINGXUAN FAN
A series of performance works
The Rose and The Stinky Pool
2024 archive, scent installation
Over a hundred years ago, a missionary couple, Andrew Thomson and Margaret Thomson, came to Huaxian, Henan Province, China with a mission. They brought rose seeds and planted them by the local stinking pond, trying to "purify" the rot with the fragrance of roses. Here, the roses relied on the sludge for nourishment, creating a paradoxical symbiosis between fragrance and foulness. These roses withstood the subsequent upheavals and still bloom on the land today.
Does the sweet fragrance of the Irish rose truly offset the stench of the pond? Or is it drowned out by the latter? My field research found that the locals' most profound collective memory of these roses is not the flowers themselves, but the unique sweet aroma of the rose candy made from them. This olfactory memory becomes a sensory clue connecting individuals to grand history, while also reflecting the complex contradictions of modernity: how the processes of industrialization, public health movements, and ever-changing political discourses reshape people's perceptions, classifications, and value judgments of smells. In the sensory order of modernity, who ultimately defines what is "fragrant" and what is "filthy"?
The detail of the map
To explore the invisible power mechanisms and historical layers behind the olfactory landscape, I embarked on a "smell archaeology." Starting with the remaining Thomson roses in Huaxian and their associated memories of rose candy, I combined historical archives of missionaries in northern Henan with clues from the "olfactory landscape" during the same period of social and political changes in China. I attempted to trace how smells are perceived, governed, and the power relations hidden behind them. During this process, I also obtained a vinyl record themed around roses, released in the same year as China's reform and opening up. Ultimately, I used the audio from this record, which carries the imprint of a specific era, along with rose essence collected or formulated locally in Huaxian, to create an olfactory sound installation. I placed this installation next to a (symbolic or real) stinking pond in Huaxian and held a "deodorization ceremony."
When the carefully formulated sweet fragrance of roses, accompanied by melodies from a specific era, wafts and swirls above the decaying stench, what we experience is purification or another form of concealment? Is it a symbol of redemption or the taming of power? If smells are the invisible boundaries delineated by social power, do those defined as out of place and expelled still silently ferment and whisper in some forgotten corner?
Over a hundred years ago, a missionary couple, Andrew Thomson and Margaret Thomson, came to Huaxian, Henan Province, China with a mission. They brought rose seeds and planted them by the local stinking pond, trying to "purify" the rot with the fragrance of roses. Here, the roses relied on the sludge for nourishment, creating a paradoxical symbiosis between fragrance and foulness. These roses withstood the subsequent upheavals and still bloom on the land today.
Does the sweet fragrance of the Irish rose truly offset the stench of the pond? Or is it drowned out by the latter? My field research found that the locals' most profound collective memory of these roses is not the flowers themselves, but the unique sweet aroma of the rose candy made from them. This olfactory memory becomes a sensory clue connecting individuals to grand history, while also reflecting the complex contradictions of modernity: how the processes of industrialization, public health movements, and ever-changing political discourses reshape people's perceptions, classifications, and value judgments of smells. In the sensory order of modernity, who ultimately defines what is "fragrant" and what is "filthy"?
When the carefully formulated sweet fragrance of roses, accompanied by melodies from a specific era, wafts and swirls above the decaying stench, what we experience is purification or another form of concealment? Is it a symbol of redemption or the taming of power? If smells are the invisible boundaries delineated by social power, do those defined as out of place and expelled still silently ferment and whisper in some forgotten corner?