Sensory Thresholds
12 - 13 September 2026 Geelong Fragrance Fair artistic program Deakin Waterfront
Fluid connections connect us to different experiences and spaces - Marita Batna, Curator
Olfactory inspired art and performance, exploring the connections between scent, place, and human experience.
Michael Morgan
Offerings (2026)
Installation: recycled materials, video projection, sound, water vessel, cast lead offering bowl, sand and ashes, flowers
Shrine as a threshold of exchange – offering objects, thoughts and energy for the ephemeral and the spiritual. In rituals of exchange, scent moving through the air creates a transient link to the spiritual. Vapours rising from these connections are highly symbolic.
Sound credits & souces:
James X Caution - original compositions
Michael Morgan - sound design
Sheikh Muhammed Ayyob ‘Surah Al-An’am’
Ahmed Jalmem ‘Ebtihalet 1’
BBC open-source sound effects (various)
Artist Bio
Michael Morgan is an interdisciplinary artist exploring the themes of impermanence and humanity's relationship with nature, often drawing inspiration from the experiences and reflections within cultural and spiritual practices.
Jennifer McElwee
The Blue Garden (2026)
Installation: recycled materials, natural materials, film and monitor
A winter reflection and the promise of spring.
“I see the cornflowers are starting to emerge from the cold ground. I look forward to their clear blue flowers in Spring.
The rosemary has pale blue blossoms on the strong green aromatic stems.
The old lavender border, although cut back hard this and every year, will continue to flower abundantly. The new spikes are as delightful when young as when they are in full fragrant bloom.”
‘The Blue Garden’ is a whimsical storytelling of my garden in all its wildness and imperfection. A wondrous discovery every day.
Artist Bio
Jennifer McElwee shares ideas and concepts through her art, which uses many disciplines including drawing, sculpture, installation and film. Kinetics is an enduring interest and is often incorporated into her creations.
Anne Scott Wilson
Flush (2023)
Installation: single channel video projection, acrylic disc, dimensions variable. Originally exhibited as part of 'Fugitive States', ACU gallery, Melbourne, 2023.
A circle of colour, a slowly turning acrylic disc, and the unseen movement of the air. Every so often, by chance, they fall perfectly in sync becoming a small dance between light and matter that no one choreographs. It's the same feeling I know from dancing: moved by a force you can't see.
Artist Bio
Anne Scott Wilson’s work tests the thresholds of light, data and transcendence.
Drawing from ballet’s exploration of transcendence through repetition, endurance, and physical commitment, Anne’s work delves into the paradox of inhabiting a physical body while yearning to surpass its limitations—confronting themes of mortality in the process. Whether working with video, AI, painting, installation, writing, or photography, she utilises the tools available to her with a sense of spontaneity.
Play is central to her approach, characterised by embracing failure. Through this iterative process of making and experimentation, her ideas are gradually revealed, evolving organically into her art.
Jessica Lesosky and Sheshtin Honey
Bodies of Water (2026)
Movement work (pop-up performance). Saturday 12 September, 11 am, 12 pm, 1 pm
As we move, beads of water will accumulate and sound happenings will begin. Through touch, we will activate capacitive synthesizers to evoke a world of droplets, water and oceans. Our bodies of water generate the soundscape. Body to body, body to water, water to body.
Skin becomes shoreline, fingers tributaries, the spine a river; sweat, rain, tears and ocean become indistinguishable. Movement shifts between microscopic worlds, cells, droplets and condensation to the vast connected systems of tides, currents and storms.
Water becomes a carrier of sensory and embodied memory: of places, bodies, weather, touch and experiences held over time. What does water remember, and what memories surface in us through its sound, scent and touch?
Through slow, fluid movement, bodies shift through space, accumulate, connect, disperse and eventually evaporate.
We are Bodies of Water
Artist Bios
Jessica Lesosky - Dancer/ Facilitator/Choreographer/movement-based artist:
Her practice sits at the intersection of performance, community, and care, exploring connections between body, environment, and belonging. She works across contemporary dance, improvisation, and dance/movement therapy, creating inclusive, process-driven spaces that support creativity, communication, and social engagement. She is currently developing and collaborating with Sheshtin Honey on ‘Permission Granted’, a multidisciplinary performance exploring pleasure, power, and the reclamation of the body through movement, sound, and voice.
Sheshtin Honey - Composer / Musician / Sound designer:
Composition history includes live improv, Alt Classical, Post Rock, Electro, Appalachian Thrash & Doom. Recent compositions - “Rock Mass Comunitas” live improv score Platform Arts 2026, “I Am In A Parasocial Relationship With Britney Spears” Back to Back Theatre Geelong Arts Centre, May 2026, “Agincourt” film by Back to Back Theatre, ACMI co-commission 2025.
Image: Jessica Lesosky’s ‘Permission Granted’ in collaboration with Sheshtin Honey, 2025 (featuring artists). Photo: Leiko Manalang-Frequin