Pandanus Odoratissimus

Edel Kelly

November 15 to December 21 2024

Opening Reception on November 15 from 6pm to 8pm

Olfactory Art Keller is honored to present Edel Kelly’s Pandanus Odoratissimus, the latest multisensory installation in the gallery’s Project Room. The exhibit is inspired by Pandanus Odoratissimus, a tree found on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. For this installation, the Project Room will be infused with a pure Kewra attar that responds to the triptych painting. The scent that the plant releases from the male bloom is sweet and to obtain the purest of attars the flower is best collected after the monsoon rains before it opens to the sun. The bloom, creamy yellow white in color releases Phenyl-ethyl-methyl ether, Phenyl ethanol and other Esters. 

In 1997, the artist took a passenger ship from Kolkata to the Andaman Islands. There along the tropical jungle shores, she found accommodation in the trees. This was the beginning of a lifelong relationship with the islands, its natural bounty and the people. Drawing on immersive experiences in nature, the goal of Kelly’s work is to transform and convey her intrinsic connection to nature in a simple and authentic form. The representation shifts between recognizably figurative and abstract, as such experiences ebb and flow.

Edel Kelly has traveled extensively for over three decades in India and continues to return to the islands. In her most recent trip, Edel visited in October and November 2023 to experience the scent of the Pandanus in the transition between the Southwest Monsoon to the Northeast Monsoon when one of the most biodiverse rainforests in the world is in its peak vibrancy.