Irina Adam
PHOTOGRAPHY

'PITCH PINE POLLEN:A TRANSFORMING FOREST IN PHOTOGRAPHY & SCENT' at olfactory art keller, 2024​​​​​​​​

An exhibit comprising of photographs, a deconstructed perfume, and elements of a forest transforming due to climate change. Including the perfume, Pitch Pine Pollen. 
The photographs are part of an ongoing project documenting one of the artist’s favorite wandering spots, a secluded coastal patch of the Long Island Pine Barrens. It began as a way to capture the visual poetry and abstract shapes of a unique landscape. But in 2022 it turned to witnessing and recording a changing forest- as trees began getting attacked and quickly decimated by the southern pine beetle migrating up due to warming temperatures. 
Green needles turn to red then gray. Tall grasses take over the newly sunny spots, thorny native vines throw tendrils into ghostly trunks. A swarm of tiny woodpeckers clean the tree tops. Spiderwebs tangle over branch tips, tiny new bogs form where the trees stop absorbing water.

The scents featured are aromatic plant extracts first created as mementos of the forest. 
One visit found, sadly, a pine forest with no smell. But on a next trip in May the vibrant sweet scent of pine pollen burst from the last remaining live branches, and experiments with preserving the forest's scent-scape ensued. The pollen held on to its tenacious buzzing smell; suspended in alcohol, the yellow dots continue emitting volatile life force. Also infused are pine resin (emitted from bark to chase the tiny invaders) needles, and green pollen tips, and surrounding tree flowers of beach plum and oak catkins. The perfume Pitch Pine Pollen was built around these wild smells, an evocative tree-flower and pine pollen amber, made in collaboration with the landscape.

A multi-sensory experience inviting connection with the story of a forest. Bearing witness and partaking in the breath of the land thru scent. Engaging with the reality of change, often surprising elements of resilience, change and transformation that can come swiftly, irreversibly and so close to home. 
The occasional human shadow or hand in the images brings the viewer into the landscape. Walking slower while healing from bouts of covid, then Lyme, the artist found herself a body infested in a forest infested by parasites- all of which, proliferated by humans in some way. Surviving but altered. The landscape as a mirror. Exploring ways to be a witness, and connecting to land via witnessing closely and sharing scent/ breath.
Created on native Montaukett lands of Napeague meaning ‘land overflowed by the sea.’ Exhibited in 2024 at Olfactory Art Keller , NYC.