Clara Ursitti. Self-Portrait in Scent, Sketch no. 1 (1994).

Self-portrait in Scent, Sketch no 1.

Scent dispensers with motion sensors within a small specially constructed room with electronic door. The scent was synthetic.

Exhibited in New Art In Scotland at The Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow and Aberdeen City Art Gallery 1994; Bartok Galleria, Budapest, Hungary.

In her groundbreaking 1994 work Self-Portrait in Scent, Sketch no. 1 , Scottish-Canadian artist Clara Ursitti created one of the first olfactory self-portraits in contemporary art. Departing from the traditional, visual concept of self-representation, Ursitti used only scent. no image, no text, no physical likeness.to depict her identity.

The installation invited viewers into a scent-filled space that emitted a composition based on the artist’s own body odors, such as sweat and pheromonal traces, chemically analyzed and reconstructed by perfumers. The result was an invisible, immersive encounter with the artist.not through sight, but through smell.

By shifting the medium of self-portraiture from the visual to the olfactory, Ursitti challenged the dominance of the eye in Western art and offered a deeply personal yet universally accessible form of connection. Self-Portrait in Scent explored the boundaries between public and private, visibility and invisibility, and invited reflection on how scent.intimate and primal.can shape presence, memory, and identity.

The work is now considered a milestone in olfactory and conceptual art, opening up new terrain for sensory experimentation and non-verbal self-expression.