Artist, writer, nose: Se Young Au is a multisensory storyteller and co-founder of Bureau Massif. From shocking to stylish to sensitive, we can't get enough of her work.
What do you mean when you say you’re a multi-sensory artist? Did you start out focusing your efforts in one area, then expand your scope? What was the process leading up to your current practice?
Multi-sensory for me means that my work strives to engage with more than just the visual. I believe that color has the power to elicit varied emotional and vibrational responses. I aim to create experiences that are immersive and transportive.
From a young age I studied music, both piano and voice. I continued that into college and also majored in photography. When I moved to LA I began formally studying scent at the Institute of Art and Olfaction. This really informed my visual work, and I’m able to connect a scented material to the timbre of an instrument or frequency.
Currently, I’ve been making installations with both sculptural and scented elements, and am interested in their interplay with the body. I’ll do preliminary research, writing and make rudimentary sketches. It’s hard to say which element comes first—often they come simultaneously as one aspect’s clarity directly informs the articulation of the other.
I’m able to connect a scented material to the timbre of an instrument or frequency.
Do you feel like you’re most fluent in one medium?
No—I typically start out writing and expand into different mediums from there. Lately, I’ve become more aware of how essential writing is to my practice. I’ve been lucky enough to create a quarterly series of sensory writing titled Transmissions for Varyer, out of Chicago, which utilizes some of my visual work in a totally different context that gets to live neatly on the screen.
A Clearing, Se Young Au
Do you consider your work to be topical?
Yes, it’s all connected. My work explores several intersecting systems and examines how they brutalize people by design—specifically the industrial adoption complex and the prison pipeline. There’s a lot of zooming in and out of different aspects of hierarchy and perceived truths. Distilling the work through different mediums really helps me articulate an idea in full dimensionality.
Screen Study #1, Se Young Au
I love the work that’s coming out of your personal challenge to make photos out of only 3 objects. It reminds me of super-intense vintage food photography of Jell-O creations. I know you’re only a few weeks in, but have you learned anything so far? How’s it going?
It’s definitely challenging but I’ve been having fun with it, which was the entire point of the project. It’s liberating when you know that every image you compose isn’t going to be “great” and you can move on and be okay with that. Trying to eradicate unnecessary preciousness from my process, I’ve really been giving myself permission to experiment in ways that I haven’t before in terms of lighting and composition, and that feels so good.
Sieve, Se Young Au
Do you have a local artistic community? Or is it more online?
I have been so fortunate to be in a community with some incredible artists here in LA. Building relationships here has been a combination of making friends through social media and actually meeting up IRL and spending time out in the world and taking chances. I’ve cultivated friendships with folks that ended up leading to creative collaborations, etc., but there’s a deep sense of care and dedication to uplifting each other—it doesn’t feel like a scarcity mentality here. Like, we’re all aware of what we’re contributing to the landscape and feel grateful for one another’s perspectives.
Part of your artist’s statement is about how you work among the pervasiveness of loss. Is the impermanence of a scent part of why you’re drawn to it? What does it do for you that other mediums can’t?
My works are essentially an offering to folks—those of us who live with life-long grief and how to survive in this place despite it. It’s often a reimagining, or portal to an extended world where we can access different planes. I think that scent has a way of piercing our consciousness that other mediums can’t access—definitely because of the way it connects with memories. You can experience it, step into it, be enveloped by it. Scent transports you somewhere, oftentimes without your mind’s permission.
We’re all aware of what we’re contributing to the landscape and feel grateful for one another’s perspectives.
Bureau Massif just launched. (And it looks amazing.) How do you collaborate with your two co-founders? What inspired the three of you to realize you fit together and you wanted to do this?
Oh, thank you! Writers Natlie Toren and Betty Hallock and I met while taking classes at the IAO (Institute of Art and Olfaction) and ended up developing a deep bond over the world-building aspect of scent. Combining our skill sets was kind of inevitable I suppose, and we are dedicated to the exploration and storytelling through an olfactory lens with our work through Bureau Massif.
We are proud to finally have a site for all of our work to “live.” We are all quite adept in different kinds of writing—but I usually default to their expertise which is at the intersection of food and beauty. It depends on the project and who has the bandwidth to take on which roles the brief requires. Since we are based in both LA and NY, there are logistics we have to contend with and rely on technology to assist us with bridging the physical distance.
What are your most-used synonyms for ‘smell’? Any good ones besides ‘fragrance’ or ‘scent’ I should add to my vocabulary?
Oh that’s tough. There’s only aroma, but sometimes we only associate that with food and an extension of taste. We have a lot of language that’s referential when it comes to scent but it’s in respect to another sense. Ed Yong wrote this really excellent piece for The Atlantic on how Western cultures do not have an adept vocabulary to describe scent, while others do.
Words are important and the scent world is evolving too. There is an entire category that is/was referred to as “Orientals” and post 2020, folks are really pushing back on that terminology. I’ve heard both Amber and Resinous being presented as industry alternatives. As a Korean person I am encouraged that this conversation is moving forward but there’s still so much work to do in making the perfumery space equitable and accessible to diverse voices. Scent making is too powerful of a tool to be relegated to the same old white European male perspective.
Favorite tools or software that you use?
I was fortunate to get a Wacom tablet (yay payment plan) and I’ve enjoyed the experience of using it. For a while, I was working on a 12” laptop so it felt very luxurious to be able to see and get into the work from a different perspective. I also got a legit mouse recently with a horizontal scroll—that was a game changer! I’m starting to teach myself Blender and even though I’m not speeding through that (high learning curve!) I am finding it very rewarding. I’m also into it being an open-source program. Adobe has such a monopoly on the software end of things and it’s a total barrier to entry because of the price point. How does the industry expect to address major diversity issues if folks can’t afford the subscription prices? It’s a racket.
What are you excited to work on next?
I’ll be traveling at the end of December 2022 to be part of an experiential/sensory dinner with friends who run Tombo, which is a narrative culinary practice founded in Kyoto and currently based in Copenhagen by Chef Edgars Šutka and his wife, publisher Alice Grandoit- Šutka. They asked me to create a scent around the theme of re/decomposition inspired by the words of artist/academic Denise Ferreria. Very lucky to be doing this kind of work and dreaming of possibilities and creative expressions with friends.
In January 2023, I’ll be showing an installation piece titled, A Clearing at the Institute of Art and Olfaction. It is deeply meaningful that I was given the opportunity to show this work in this space, which provided me with the foundation for my studies within the olfactory world. It’s an offering of sorts, which employs the molecule geosmin to bridge worlds and addresses the inhumanness of the suppression and harm done by the state through mass incarceration.
In May 2023, I’ll be traveling to Cornell University to participate in a symposium put on by the East Asia Program examining biophobia. This incredible scholar, Dr.Soyi Kim, is putting it together and her work is at the intersection of art and the unique bio-political experience of those within the Korean diaspora. I am so honored to be included in these vital conversations.
And I’m working on a three-movement public art project slated for 2023-2024, called Reflections, with my frequent creative partner Kaitlyn Darby. We’re co-designing a sensory garden with the Blind and Visually Impaired community within Lafayette Park in Westlake.
For more commercial projects, what can clients or creative directors do to support you making your best work? What should they NOT do?
I believe that having mutual respect and understanding for the creative process (with respect to inevitable moments of unpredictability) should be at the foundation of any interaction with an artist. Creating safe and equitable sets is a must in my book. I’ve been on so many sets where I felt uncomfortable and disposable. Hire diverse crews (not just talent), and if you don’t know [enough]—ask to be put on by others. Producers please step up—you’re responsible for setting the tone and vibe and making folks feel welcome.
Trust people to do their thing, and do it well—and remember that you sought them out for their POV. Additionally, most creative people really like some structure or guidelines to work within which sometimes I think surprises clients. Part of commercial work is problem solving within your client’s needs. On the other side of that, micromanaging is a death wish—haha—that’s never going to produce a win for anyone.
Micromanaging is a death wish.
Do you have any favorite noses or perfume houses we should follow? Favorite inspiring instagram follows?
TBH I haven’t been out in the world to smell a ton of new things in the past 2.5 years but have just started again but I’ll write about some of my favorites:
My mentor, teacher, and dear friend Ashley Eden Kessler. We met at the IAO (where she is the director of education) here in LA and we have developed a wonderful rapport. She is a gifted educator who makes students feel welcome and empowered in the sometimes-intimidating world of perfumery. I love her scents—such dimension, clarity and deeply present. Looking forward to the Eau de parfum she’s been working on for Ceylon Skincare to be released soon!
Maya Njie out of London. She’s a self-taught perfumer who utilizes her full expression as an artist- culling inspiration from family photographs and her West African/Swedish cultural upbringing. The packaging / visuals are just as considered and it’s so compelling. Her scents are made in small batches in her studio and are evocative, distinct, and tell an authentic story.
Dusita is this incredible brand by the Thai perfumer Pissara Umavijani, who is based in Paris. Her father was a poet and she cites him as a creative inspiration. She has the most elegant and exceptional scents rooted in her cultural memories. Modern florals with a romantic lean done right.
Mondo-Mondo by Natasha Ghosn. I met her during New York market years ago and became obsessed with the samples she gave me. I was taken with her ability to make truly unique and lyrical scents and that it’s in conversation with her jewelry. She has this ability to draw you into her world—opulent and sensual. I know she is revamping her scent line and I’m very excited to see what she is planning to unveil.
Tracy Wan is a thoughtful writer based out of Canada. She’s one half of Invisible Stories (their TikTok is very active) which covers a lot on contemporary perfume, highlighting POC perfumers and advancing the cultural conversations around scent.
Studio Tanaïs—Tanaïs is a perfumer and writer. They recently wrote a book called In Sensorium on scent and cultural memories and it absolutely broke me with its beauty.
@jasparfums—Dana El Masri, a talented perfumer out of Montreal, has amassed this amazing resource: a list of diverse talent in the industry.
@funmimonet—Funmi Monet is the voice we need in the beauty/fragrance space! I love her perspective, especially her reviews—they’re clever and unstuffy and relatable. She also released her first perfume, Exalté, in 2022, making her one of the only Black women to produce a fragrance in France.
Any top scent memories, good or bad?
Gagging over a pungent Ginkgo tree underneath the Williamsburg bridge every morning I crossed it, huffing Mr. Sketches scented markers (shout out light blue=mango) in my elementary school art class, the toasty nuttiness and honied smell of sesame seed oil dotting Korean dishes I ate as a kid during summers in Minneapolis, and being comforted by the fruity melange of my mother’s Paul Mitchell hair spray.
Scent goals: I can’t wait until I’m 40 and integrate an Oud into my repertoire and feel unabashed about it.
