The Cedar and The Sea

As part of London Craft Week 2021, Two Temple Place & AVM Curiosities presented The Cedar & The Sea, a new multi-sensory exploration of the building, employing scent, taste, sight and sound to delve into the building’s layered histories and celebrate the craftsmanship at the heart of this stunning Neo-Gothic mansion.

The experience was only available by guided tour, which was hosted by founder of AVM Curiosities’ Tasha Marks and Two Temple Place’s Head of Exhibitions, Rebecca Hone. Beginning with a bespoke cocktail inspired by William Astor – who commissioned Two Temple Place in the 1890s – visitors experienced first a soundscape by the composer Troy Hewson. The ethereal soundscape captured some of the marine elements of the building, while also referencing Astor’s journey across the pond from New York.

The tour continued upstairs into the Great Hall where the main installation; a large-scale, scented, mixed media artwork, dominated the upstairs office. The scent of the installation referenced, the use of pencil cedar wood, within the room, originally supposedly used to promote calm and points to William Waldorf Astor’s feelings of anxiety and paranoia.

Projected onto this scented, hanging fabric piece was a film produced in collaboration with Sian Toogood that depicted the textures of the tides from the nearby Thames.

The Cedar & The Sea was intended as a journey – physically, sensorily and narratively. We hope to make the tour available again – please sign up below to our mailing list to be the first to hear about it.

The Cedar & The Sea creative team:

Director: Tasha Marks

Sound: Troy Hewson

Scent produced in collaboration with CPL Aromas

Film production: Sian Toogood & Tasha Marks

AVM Curiosities has been exploring the relationship between art and the senses through a series of events, installations and interventions since 2011. Founded by award-winning food historian Tasha Marks, AVM Curiosities champions the use of fragrance, sound and flavour as artistic mediums.

London Craft Week runs for a week every year. Visit www.londoncraftweek.com for more information.