Scentscapes: Immersive Environments Inspired by Xi’an

Professors Rodolphe el-Khoury and Robert Levit (Khoury Levit Fong)

July 9 to October 2, 2010

WORKshop, Lower Concourse, 80 Bloor Street West, Toronto

Designed by Professors Rodolphe el-Khoury and Robert Levit, members of Daniels Faculty and partners in the Toronto architecture firm Khoury Levit Fong, Scentscapes: Immersive Environments Inspired by Xi’an opened on June 9th. The exhibition feature drawings of a public garden currently under construction in one of China’s ancient capitals, Xi’an, along with a site-specific installation titled Scent Squadron.

The new garden in Xi’an was conceived to delight all the senses while favoring smell. Commissioned for the 2011 Xi’an World Horticultural Exposition, the garden was designed by Rodolphe el-Khoury with Daniels students Drew Adams, James Dixon, and Fadi Masoud. The garden’s terraced pine groves and array of planting, including beds of rosemary and thyme, will offer a unique olfactory world. Natural fragrances will be complemented by the diffusion of plant extracts from motion, sensor-activated, glowing poles. The Xi’an Scent Garden promises to be both spectacular and intimate, offering a kind of olfactory map of China.

WORKshop’s Artistic Director, Professor Emeritus Larry Wayne Richards, notes that the exhibition at 80 Bloor Street West includes an imaginative, special installation: “Robert Levit and Rodolphe el-Khoury, with James Dixon, Lindsay Hochman, Khalid al-Nasser, and Farhana Sharmin installed a ‘vaulted pine forest,’ an array of suspended scent-dispensing vials. They call it the ’Scent Squadron’ because it obliquely invokes the famous 210-209 B.C. Terracotta Army near Xi’an, one of the world’s great works of funerary art.”

 

For more information visit the WORKshop website at www.workshoptoronto.com.

For images from the opening reception visit: www.khourylevitfong.com.