Neutra — Emily Endo

Scents for Neutra VDL HouseGlass, fragrance, paper, 2021

A three-part olfactory response to each floor of the Neutra VDL House in Los Angeles, Ca. After a site visit and research on Neutra’s thoughts on scent and sensation, Endo created fragrances specific to each floor in the form of a take-away vial, free to all visitors.

Photography by Erik Benjamins, courtesy of Marta

Fragrances:
Nature Near: Aluminum, elm leaves, and white stone
Life and Shape: Blonde wood, amber, paper and beeswax
From Floor to Clouds: Mirror, water, and aloe leaves

“Set upon an original hairpin-leg table on the courtyard deck, a wonderfully scaled cast glass vessel offers visitors a vial of [wearable] scent: Nature Near subjectively captures and then re-presents notes of aluminum (used throughout the house’s construction), elm leaves is a reference to the Chinese Elm that anchors the home’s courtyard), and white stone (which adorns the adjacent exterior wall). In generous spirit, both tangibly and sensorially, Endo has created three scents for the home on behalf of Built-In; one for each floor of the residence, and each sensitive to its particular siting within the home.” - Built In at the Neutra VDL House, exhibition catalog

“Atop an instance of built-in storage in the home’s second floor seating area, a volume that formerly held a record player and its accompanying wiring components now supports a cast glass bowl from the artist Emily Endo. As with the offering on the floor below, the open vessel contains sealed vials of scent, generously offered up to visitors. Life and Shape gives scent to the library and its contents via notes of blonde wood, amber, paper, and beeswax, providing an olfactory re-presentation of visual and material inputs, like the wall’s pale wood veneer and the rows of hardcover tomes that surround a visitor is this study-like space.” - Built In at the Neutra VDL House, exhibition catalog

“At the top of the stairs leading up to the penthouse, a quarter-turn brings into view a knife-edge wooden low table specific to the VDL House and sited next to several built-in seating elements. Upon this table, a cast glass vessel provides interested viewers a vial of scent: the third of three olfactory offerings from artist Emily Endo. From Floor to Clouds seeks out several aromas from seemingly scentless objects, subjectively capturing an abstracted bouquet of mirror, water, and aloe leaves, the latter of which can be found in great volumes among the rooftop’s long open planters, just beyond the expanse of mirror that leads out to the open air rooftop, where one can look out at the reservoir or up into the clouds.”
- Built In at the Neutra VDL House, exhibition catalog

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