Demistify: Charing Cross Hospital Art Collection as Perfume

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The sense of smell is one of our most developed yet least understood sense and is known to be beneficial to the health of those with dementia and brain injuries. Charing Cross hospital has specialist stroke and neuro-rehabilitation units as well as elderly care wards. In partnership with the Imperial Health Charity, we turned the hospital art collection into perfumes. This provided an inclusive and unusual way to enjoy the amazing art collection at Charing Cross. Demistify looks to use the sense of smell to demystify memory, showing how important smelling is to our everyday experiences.

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“Since my stroke, I have not left the hospital for months. I actually loved smelling the perfume based on London dirt because I even miss the smell of pollution outside! Thank you for bringing a piece of the outside in for me. ”

    - Patient on the neuro rehabilitation ward

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“This perfume is vintage smelling, and reminds me exactly of the sorts of scents I used to wear when I went to dances in the sixties.”

    - Outpatient