📅 Thru January 26, 2025
🕓 Tuesday – Sunday 10 am – 5 pm (Thursdays until 8 pm, closed Mondays)
📍 National Nordic Museum: 2655 NW Market Street, Ballard, Seattle
💰 $20 general, $15 seniors/students, $10 youth
🎟️ Get tickets at nordicmuseum.org
Have you ever stopped to wonder why so many museum exhibits rely on sight alone? That thought evaporates at Faux Flora, a multisensory playground created by Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi and his family art collective and perfumery, Fischersund. If you caught Jónsi’s FLÓÐ exhibit at the Nordic museum in 2023, you’ll have some sense of what you’re in for, but this show is more involved, colorful, and interactive.
Black columns house video installations of invented flowering species, each paired with its own resin cloche hiding distinct scents. These aren’t your garden-variety blooms—they sport names like Pick ‘n Mix, Mucus Plug, and Fine China (the last of which tinkles musically as it moves). Think Dr. Seuss meets Icelandic art rock, all while exploring themes of birth, flowering, and death through scented resin sculptures, gelatin prints, and undulating video installations of hand-embroidered fabric.
Nordic Museum curator Leslie Anne Anderson, who’s collaborated with Jónsi since 2019, sees the exhibit as particularly meaningful post-pandemic: It “represents our age in a way that is thought-provoking but also elicits emotional response. It may trigger aesthetic shivers, and it’s exactly what we need in this moment. We need to feel and be stimulated especially after emerging from COVID.”
@theticketsea 🌸 Smell your way through life stages at this surreal art show 🌸 Sigur Rós's Jónsi + his artist sisters created custom scents for each chapter of human life, paired with otherworldly flowers @fischersund🌱 @fischersund 📍 National Nordic Museum @nationalnordicmuseum 🎟️ Through Jan 2025 #thingstodoinseattle #pnw #SeattleArt ♬ original sound – TheTicketSeattle
💡 Pro tip: This is Faux Flora’s first stop before touring other cities and Nordic countries. We’re lucky to have it here first. Catch the farewell Silent Disco on Friday, January 17th in the museum’s auditorium, featuring playlists inspired by Iceland and various life stages.
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