Pallavi Padukone

Familiar Fragrances

There is a growing tendency among humans to crave a connection with nature in urban environments and for the sensorial experience of interacting with its elements. The sense of smell is a powerful catalyst to trigger memories and feelings of comfort, calmness and familiarity in spaces. Pallavi Padukone integrated materials and aroma together through interactive textiles to provide an escape from the complex lifestyles we live in and to allow us to reconnect with nature indoors. Familiar Fragrances plays with the idea of visually depicting scents and their characteristics through color, texture and dimension. Padukone focused on two scents within her body of work: KHUS (Vetiver) and MOGRA (Jasmine). She associates Vetiver with the layered, grounding, woody scent of the first rains hitting the parched summer earth. The roots of Vetiver, a perennial bunch grass native to India, releases a complex aroma and a natural cooling effect when activated with water. Through that piece, Padukone aims to bring Vetiver into urban spaces by taming its wildness through embroidery and introducing a sense of delicateness and fragility, while retaining its natural earthiness. Padukone describes Morga or Jasmine, as the sweet familiar fragrance of home, memories and celebration. The Jasmine flower, reminiscent of South India, brings to mind the feeling of home and thoughts of visits to flower markets, of weddings and celebrations, of garlands worn in women’s hair, and of the buds blooming in our gardens. Playing with transparency, light, distortion and pattern to elevate the delicate, feminine, airy aesthetics of its scent and its memories.

Pallavi Padukone allows her work to be guided by material, culture and craft, taking inspiration from nature and surrounding landscapes for color, patterns and materials. She respects craftsmanship, the handmade, the sustainable and the slow. She experiments with techniques of embroidery, weaving and print and also believes in the ubiquitous application of textiles and its ability to tell stories of history, culture, traditions, craft and people.