Talk With Artist Kentaro Yamada: Art, Inspiration, and Neandertal Perfume
How did Neandertal perfume begin?
Kentaro Yamada: I have been practicing art as a contemporary artist for over 15 years. Rather than a conventional perfume brand, this project was born out of my art practice. I was interested in subject matter that enables us to think beyond our everyday sphere and reflect on human existence from an alternative perspective. I released a very small edition of this conceptual fragrance at Ace Hotel during Frieze Art Fair in 2017, and it started from there.
So, as an artist, how did you arrive at the medium of scent?
Kentaro Yamada: The scent is the only sensation that travels such a direct path to the emotional memory centers of the brain, and I thought it was a very open space to captivate people’s imagination. Creating a perfume called ‘Neandertal’ also challenges many preconceptions we might hold about Neanderthals, and what we might consider tasteful scents.
How does a project like Neandertal come together?
Kentaro Yamada: Two years before the first launch, I started collaborating with friend and perfumer Euan McCall who understood the complexities and possibilities of what this project could enable artistically. We wanted Neandertal perfumes to smell even more sophisticated than what humans may wear today, so this fragrance can extend our limited understanding of Neanderthals and ultimately about humanity.
Neandertal has very unique bottle designs, can you tell us a bit about them?
Kentaro Yamada: I visited a Neolithic flint-knapping (forming flint rock tools) specialist Will Lord in Norfolk several times to discuss the ideas, and we constructed a perfect handaxe shape which we were happy with. My artistic practice also incorporates ceramic objects, so I created handmade porcelain slip cast bottles from these shapes.
Another thing to note is that collaboration is a very important part of our creative process. For example, with our new glass bottles, each flint rock, that was shaped by Will and me, was scanned by 3D designer Jules Malcomson, who worked for Mario Testino for many years. Then my business partner and designer, Campbell Melrose-Allen, and I created our 30ml handmade glass bottle from the scanned stone.
You have two collections – dark/light and us/them, can you tell us a bit about the concept behind them?
Kentaro Yamada: Conceptually, I often use dichotomy as an opportunity to think about what may lie between entities. For example, our latest line us/them creates a space to think about a subject matter such as a divide in our social-political positions, or ideas of borders, and so forth. At the same time, I was thinking about the time period when Homo sapiens and Neanderthals encountered each other. I am sure there were tensions similar to what we experience today.
What’s next for Neandertal? Do you have any new scents or candles in production?
Kentaro Yamada: As much as we enjoy being a fragrance brand, we want to be driven by a conceptual approach to universal questions, manifesting this through our products. We are working on a very secret perfume project that involves the latest technology and human creativity. We are also releasing the long-awaited Neandertal us candle this autumn.
Pictures: PR
