Beau Rhee of Atelier de Geste (wearing her own design) Photo: Barbara Anastacio

Profile: I was born in Upstate New York, and grew up in Massachusetts until I finished high school. We lived in Cambridge, where my father taught and researched as a biologist at Harvard, and my mother often wrote while raising me and my little sister. It was a very intellectual, brick-and-ivy culture, but very fun, and filled with interesting scientists, writers and artists. Twinkling with ideas, but very classic.

Beau as a young girl one summer. Early signs of movement!

Later on, we moved a little further out towards Milton, a rolling old beautiful suburb south of the city, where I went to Milton Academy. My childhood was very New England, filled with nature on most weekends (skiing, hiking), ballet lessons at Boston Ballet, sometimes if we were lucky horseback riding and apple picking surely in fall. My relationship to scent began very instinctively. I was always interested in fragrance and collected it at a young age with my piggy banks. Our household was Korean, run by my tidy and meticulous mom, who filled the house with dramatic flavors, textures and scents for meals. I feel lucky that I grew up with the richness of the culture, and all the spice. Junior year, I began boarding at Milton when my parents moved back to South Korea.  Home will always mean to me the woody triumphant smell of an autumn New England forest and the spicy crunching leaves, the smoky scent of first frost, sweaty dance studio locker rooms, and mom’s bubbling stews. (I think this must be why I use a lot of woods, resin, and spice in my scents…)

Choreographic Movement Scores Beau Rhee

I always knew that New York would be where my creative life would really blossom, so I came to New York for college. As I got more serious about dance in college (double major in Art History & Dance at Barnard College, Columbia Univ.) I began using different scents and oils in classes and rehearsals to help memory recall, and bring out deep-seated movement possibilities. At the Barnard dance department, they teach so many styles (Taylor, Duncan, Graham, Cunningham, Contemporary, NYCB Balanchine ballet…) I began using different scents at different times, and associating them with different movement phrases which I began also linking to colors. It was a whole system that helped me retain more movement in my memory, and which developed a kind of sensory synesthesia system.

 

The Perfume Organ

What it means to be an American perfumer: I would say that I am an American artist & designer working with scent. I mix and work hands-on, but I collaborate with trained perfumers to compose a final piece, similar to the way an architect would work with an engineer.  It wasn’t until I went to Geneva for my MFA at Haute école d’art et de design, that I thought about scent as an art form. My advisors there thought my scent-movement relationship to be quite interesting and urged me to explore it. I was always fascinated with dance notation and its relationship to the ephemeral. So, I wanted to find out more about perfume notation. The perfumery that I work with in South of France was very gracious when I contacted them to do research on the relationship between dance notation and fragrance notation. The art and craft of perfumery is biological, chemical, technical, and very beautiful. The aesthetic abstraction we can play with on the perfumery side starts from nature and how to harvest oils, geography, and I think part of the beauty of the art is learning about the earth from these olfactory materials. Perhaps my dad’s background is linked here in some way.

I realized how American I was when I began working with the perfumery in South of France. I had a kind of open, non-gendered attitude towards scent, which was very different from the traditional French education that the perfumers had learned from in the Jean Carles method. There is beauty in the classic, traditional foundation that they have, of course. I think the American method is more wild (think Wild Wild West), a bit more free, improvised and jazzy, untempered by societal thoughts of what scent is. I think this attitude must have driven the noses there a bit crazy, but I think the mix of my ideas and their savoir-faire resulted in some beautiful pieces! The 3 formulas for the line were not designed to be commercial, but were rather pure explorations of how to describe movement through olfactory scent. The fragrances are all mixed and macerated in Grasse. When I came back to the States in 2012, I received a lot of encouragement from art and fashion industry folk to introduce the 3 as a line. Et voila, l’Atelier de Geste!

Bill T.Jones, Charles Mingus Ah Um Album Cover and Nina Simone

Favorite American Artists: I will never forget the first time I saw Bill T. Jones perform. He came to our high school and did a stick dance. He carried a stick (which, on stage, held so much symbolic meaning) with both hands cradled delicately like a butterfly. He danced on a simple diagonal, with simple arabesques and attitudes, for about 20 minutes. It was the most powerful thing I have ever seen. The way his movement transformed space, the way the human body could tell our collective story, the way simple objects could take on narrative meaning and tell us stories. It was seminal to my dedication to dance and movement. I was very lucky to later on, after college, apprentice and take the company classes at his studio, which was a dream come true.

Then there is Nina Simone, high priestess of soul, boundless well of inspiration for me. Wild is the Wind is named after her song.

Mingus Ah Um Original cover art by S. Neil Fujita

Charles Mingus is no longer with us, but Fables of Faubus is an iconic song, a true testament to the power of art in society. I listen to Mingus Ah Um whenever I need color and strength.   Jazz, for me, personifies the creativity and life force of the American can-do spirit, the overcoming of obstacles to produce something of incredible beauty.

“Anybody can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.” – Charles Mingus

–Beau Rhee, Artist, Dancer and  Founder of Atelier de Geste Perfumes

 

Editor’s Note: We first met Beau at the Elements Showcase, August 2013 and awarded her debut with a Best of Show Award for favorite new fragrance line.  In October of 2013  we met again at Twisted Lily Fragrance Boutique in Brooklyn during Sniffapalooza Fall Ball  (her first stockist) and we had a chance to spend some quality time discussing Atelier de Geste perfumes.  I learned about Beau's dance performances and art installations just recently. In addition to scent “Atelier”, Beau’s online shop also features her Geste Line of fine dancers’ tights.  I realized her seamless integration of Art and scent is what CaFleureBon strives to achieve to bring to our readers. . Beau is as gracious as her profile would suggest and truly unique as an artist..  -Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief

Atelier de Geste translated  from French means The Gesture Studio. Thanks to Beau Rhee we have a draw for the USA, Canada and the EU as follows

For our USA readers, a choice of 50 ml of Blood Sweat and Tears (An Institute of Art and Olfaction Finalist 2014), The Good Earth or Wild is the Wind. You also have the option to choose a voyager discovery set of 10 ml roll ons of all three.

If you live in the Canada or the EU you are eligible for a sampler set of Blood Sweat and Tears, The Good Earth and Wild is the Wind.

 To be eligible, please leave a comment with what you found fascinating about Beau Rhee, your choice should you win, and where you live. Draw closes November 27, 2014

Please like CaFleureBon Profiles in American Perfumery on Facebook and your entry will count twice.

We announce the winners on our site and on our Facebook page, so Like Cafleurebon and use our RSS option…or your dream prize wil be just spilled perfume