In September of 2009, perfumer Anne McCain traveled to the city of San Miguel de Allende in Mexico to spend one week volunteering with a team of friends at Casa de los Angeles, a day care center for orphans and children of single working mothers serving over 100 children from 73 families.
Hoping to convey the sense of compassion she experienced as a result of the trip, McCain created Humanity Fragrance. A graduate of the Grasse Institute of Perfumery in the south of France, and the founder of MCMC Fragrances, McCain turned to the fine art of perfumery after an extended interest in photography as another way to flatten an experience into something tangible, yet ethereal.
Inspired by the icon of the sacred heart found in Mexico, collaborator Lance McGregor designed a fountain with a glass anatomical heart which sits atop a stone base. The heart will be cast and hand-crafted by fellow Brooklyn glass artist Alan Iwamura. Perfumed water will flow gently and calmly over the heart and cycle back; all of the mechanics for the fountain will be solar powered.
In conjunction with the New York City Parks Department and the Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn, the Humanity perfume fountain will be installed in McGolrick Park for six months beginning in the summer of 2010. During the summer, programs and events will take place at the Humanity fountain. McCain plans to give lectures and workshops on basic perfumery and aromatherapy, teach art classes for children using natural materials from the park, and invite other artists and community members to participate.
*Above, Humanity Fragrance bottles.
Describing the inspiration behind her project, McCain says, “In college, I studied photography and loved it as an art because I felt I was trying to capture a moment or a memory in a tangible object. I came into perfumery almost as an accident. I took a natural perfume workshop and fell in love with the idea of these precious, distilled plant ingredients being mixed together for a sensual,psychological impact. I think we all can relate to smells conjuring memory, and so I transferred mediums from photography to perfume as a way now to sort of write stories with scent. I like it because fragrance is ethereal – we can’t touch or see it, and that’s how memory is.”
The Humanity Fragrance and Fountain projects work in coordination with TRUST ART, an organization dedicated to bringing inspiring art projects into the public realm.
To learn more about the Humanity Fragrance project, including inspiration a gallery for photos from Anne’s time in Mexico, visit HumanityFragrance.com.
*Image courtesy of Anne McCain.
