What's that smell? It must be art.

30th April 08

Next time you catch a strange smell in the air, don’t be surprised – it might be art!

Art buffs are urging people in the North East to turn their noses up at the region’s latest unusual exhibition, which starts at Sunderland’s Reg Vardy Gallery on Ryhope Road on Wednesday April 30.

That’s because you can’t see, touch or hear any of the 14 unique artworks on display – they’re just smells. Smells you can’t experience anywhere else in the world. The exhibition – entitled If There Ever Was - will run until June 6 and is thought to be the first to feature nothing but smells.

It’s so unusual, that it’s even attracted a “smelly” sponsor – local gas pipeline company Northern Gas Networks, which uses the special smell to help people detect gas leaks. Further funding has come from Arts and Business.

Northern Gas Networks’ Director of Communications said the sponsorship deal was a unique way in which to promote the National Gas Emergency Service. “We rely on the odorant to alert people to the danger, and this exhibition delivered a fantastic opportunity to place the Emergency Service alongside some very, very unusual smells,” he said.

The smells have been specially created by perfumers and chemists across the world and include the acrid whiff of a meteorite, the seductive scent of long-extinct flowers, Cleopatra’s favourite perfume and the sweet smell of the surface of the Sun.

Some of the more bizarre and macabre smells include the odour of an East German secret police suspect and the medicine kit of a medieval plague doctor.

Some of the first people to sample the exhibits at the Reg Vardy Gallery were trained rhinoanalysts from United Utilities, the company which looks after Northern Gas Networks’ 36,000km network of pipes. These special gas engineers have noses which have been scientifically calibrated to detect the levels of smell in gas.

Their vital work involves smelling gas regularly to make sure there is exactly the right amount of odour so that members of the public can detect a leak. Too little and a dangerous leak might go undetected: too much and the overpowering scent could provoke unnecessary panic.

Rhinoanalyst Geoff Pollard, who comes from South Shields, said: “I really didn’t know what to expect from this exhibition but it’s been really interesting. The Sun was quite pleasant but the meteorite smells even worse than our gas. It’s well worth a visit.”

Curator Rob Blackson dreamed up the idea for the exhibition and has written a scratch and sniff book to accompany it. He said: “Smell is an unlikely subject for contemporary art but it can be the essence of a thing. The scents commissioned for If There Ever Was are inspired by the fact that they don’t really exist any more and have been designed by some of the finest “noses” working in fragrance production.”

Botanist James Wong, of Botanic Gardens Conservation International, is one of the ten contributors whose work features in the exhibition. He helped recreate a bouquet of extinct flowers, including the Chilean Sandalwood tree, which was driven to extinction in 1908.

“Resurrecting the scent of an extinct plant may sound like something out of Jurassic Park but the dynamics of the operation are relatively simple,” he said.

“Our team of botanists trawled through an extensive list of extinct flowers and plants to identify entries that were closely-related to existing plant species.”

If there ever was is on show at the Reg Vardy Gallery from April 30 until June 6. The gallery is open Tuesdays 10am until 8pm, Wednesdays to Fridays 10am until 6pm and Saturdays by appointment. For more information please call 0191 515 2128.

All visitors to the gallery can take home a free gas scratch and sniff card featuring the five important safety steps everyone should follow if they smell gas.

Caption: Barry Dalus, one of Northern Gas Networks’ trained rhinologists, takes a sniff at one of the odours from the exhibition.