Fischersund: Faux Flora @ National Nordic Museum

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

Faux Flora has been so successful at drawing visitors from around the region that the museum has extended it for a month to February 23rd. On February 19th, the Nordic Museum is holding an immersive scent and sound bath to send off the exhibit in suitable style.

If you’ve never been to a sound bath, it’s basically like the world’s least participatory concert—you lie down while the sounds wash over you. Traditionally, those sounds are made by crystal bowls and gongs, but the instruments at the Nordic Museum will likely be more like what you’d find in Sigur Rós. The museum promises a custom scent for the 70-minute performance, plus original music led by Inga and Lilja Birgisdottir of Fischersund alongside Sindri Már Sigfússon (aka Sin Fang of Seabear) and composer/sound designer Kjartan Holm. 

Sigfússon, Holm, and Jónsi co-founded the Fischersund Music Collective a few years ago on the premise that both music and scent have a similar structure, with low, middle, and high notes. So far, the collective has held scented concerts in LA, New York, Cork, Ireland, and Reykjavik, but the sound bath format for the February 19th event appears to be a first. Lucky us.

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