Repository 239: Creating the Scent of Midnight

Several months ago, I was invited to collaborate with Midnight Variety Hour (MVH)*, a performance art group (Fern Wiley + Lee Wilmoth + Sean Christensen) here in Portland, Oregon. They were planning a special evening of “signature” gestures and wanted me to create a signature scent for the occasion.

I approached the project as I would any past scent project associated with a theme or brand—I cast a wide net and sifted through material and language playfully. Mind you, this is not a process for the faint at heart as it can often feel like boiling the ocean if one is not careful (what does projection dust smell like?). First, I reviewed their work: performance art is, by definition, ethereal, though you can get a strong impression of its patterns and palettes through still imagery, video, interviews, and conversations with the artists. I then unbuckled the name of the group and explored the themes of “variety hour” and “midnight.”

A variety hour is a show with various parts, performers, and skits that aren’t necessarily related in theme. MVH embraces this notion with broad strokes, which made it a fun challenge to distill their essence. A variety hour, I would say, smells like a buffet, a rhizome, and a circus. Now what does a rhizome smell like at midnight?

Like adolescence, midnight has the unique privilege of being both the end and the beginning of the day—an invisible portal to new beginnings and endings. The midnight hour feels especially thrilling for adolescents who, for their entire lives, have been put to bed early by tired adults. What might their first blush of midnight smell like—when they experience, for the first time, the transition from one day to the next? Where anticipation is fierce and remains an unrequited passion for years, expecting something magical, disturbing, or frightening to happen. It’s no wonder the midnight hour has inspired comedic plays, horror films, and eerie children’s books throughout time.

I then asked them for words I could use as breadcrumbs in my studio. The initial list was long and worth sharing. I did ask for a shorter list (items in bold) which they provided and I used as a lens to choose materials, though the full set of words stayed with me throughout the creative process:

• Astro turf

• Jump ropes

• Rain ponchos

• Bells and shells

• Candles

• Clocks

• Midnight

• Time

• Digital waves

• Jumpsuits

• Rubber casings on HDMI and mic cables

• The heat of stage lights

• Lamps / lamptha

• World-building

• Memory palace

• Ritual

• Warm lamp

• Projection dust

• Mic hum

Using my research and their words as my guide, I selected a handful of notes and accords for a studio visit. They chose the final five notes and accords to work from, and I began a rapid study of them to create a “signature” scent. The only rule of perfumery I followed was to create an EDT—or eau de toilette dilution (very light, around 10% of fragrance materials). Otherwise this was an improvisational Yes And approach to creation which felt like an honest response to the nature of MVH’s work.

As I mixed one of the natural notes was particularly cranky and overbearing—it would dominate the entire composition if I used too much. Some of the notes started hiding, while others slipped comfortably hand in hand with the rest of the ingredients, much like the kindred energy among the MVH artists.

While making the finishing touches to balance the fragrance, I asked for a few more feeling words to help guide me to the proverbial finish line. They provided:

• Absurd

• Otherworldly

• Playful

• Enchanted

• Disoriented

Image courtesy MVH, label design by Sean Christensen

After chewing on these feeling words, and re-measuring, the Midnight Variety Signature Scent was completed. The bottle design was chosen (cheeky by design, a non-perfume perfume). In perfumer-adjacent, confusing speak, the final composition might be described as black fruit, green apples, smoky seashells, and astroturf. Really, the scent is a true mix of the fleeting nature of midnight where one aches for something (end or beginning?): a scented portal to ideas and imagination which I believe reflects the moves and moods of MVH.

Yours in scent and gratitude,

CHE

For more information about the group, please see @midnightvarietyhour, and feel free to email me if you want to experience this fleeting MVH midnight portal through your nose.

* Images all courtesy of the MVH artists Fern Wiley + Lee Wilmoth + Sean Christensen

At the opening on April 11, 2025 at the Secret Room, attendees were invited to smell the juice I created, the MVH signature scent and share a word that came to mind. Brings me so much joy to see people’s creativity!! Humbled by the power of olfaction once again. XOXO