Donald Urquhart, one of six artists shortlisted for the Beck’s Futures 2005 prize, has commissioned a new perfume to scent the air around his installation, From Another Graveyard. With notes of tobacco, whisky, tweed, heather and myrrh, the “retro fragrance” is designed to evoke a sense of comfort and nostalgia that underlines the work’s themes of loss, grief and memory.

When visitors approach the installation they trigger a nebuliser which delivers a 15-second burst of perfume. “I wanted a fragrance I imagined would have been popular with some homosexuals living in 1930s Edinburgh,” commented Urquhart. “It had to be distinctive. If you walked into a room and smelled this particular smell you’d think ‘A-ha! He’s one of those’.”

The fragrance, developed by the perfume company Quest International, is called Darnley after the reputedly gay murdered husband of Mary Queen of Scots.

Picture gallery of Beck’s prize 1, 2 and 3.
Via The Guardian.