On a warm autumn afternoon, I hopped on a call with Alexandra Dolgosheina to discuss all things art and perfume.

I was first introduced to this amazing creative when a mutual friend showed me her profile. I saw films, art, and visuals paired with perfume scents, and my brain filled with endless possibilities. For an interview, for a chat, and for buying 20 new perfumes, of course. After we went through the plan for the call and two rescheduled calls because life is crazy sometimes, we were ready to go.

I was immediately fascinated with Alexandra’s work. The world of art, in all of its glory, began to feel limiting in the months leading up to our interview. The thirst for more was immediately satisfied upon seeing her work. Scent and sight are honest senses; they bring back memories, build associations, and reveal things that you might try to hide, even from yourself. In her pairings, Alexandra is honest. They are both suggestive and enticing, elaborate and straightforward. Most importantly, they break limits and invite immersion. And if there’s one thing we at MKH fucking love, it’s immersion.

Before diving into the conversation, I invite you to familiarise yourself with Alexandra’s work and read about it in her own words:

I grew up mesmerised by perfume adverts. Unlike other commercials, they weren’t about words or logic — they were about atmosphere, emotion, and storytelling through visuals. That stayed with me as I built my career in art, always exploring how images can move people without explanation.

While working at Tate, I found myself drawn deeper into this connection. Tate’s collection became a catalyst: seeing artworks side by side made me want to pair them with perfumes, almost as if I were sketching a picture or creating an atmosphere around the scent itself. It felt like a way to restore what was missing in contemporary conversations about fragrance.

Over time, I realised that this is what’s often missing in modern perfumery online. Most perfume influencers speak from a single perspective: their own. They describe fragrances as “versatile,” “head-turning,” or “perfect for the gym,” but there’s little room left for interpretation. Perfume isn’t objective, just like art isn’t. One person can fall in love with a painting that another dismisses with a shrug — and scent works the same way.

Fragrance is deeply personal. It’s tied to memory, chemistry, and experience. We all have scents we love, scents we hate, and scents that trigger feelings we can’t even explain. Smell is embedded in our daily lives in ways we rarely acknowledge. A single whiff can take you back to your childhood, your first love, or remind you of someone instantly — I guarantee that if you were given ten identical t-shirts, you could pick out your mother’s scent immediately. Scent bonds us to memory and emotion more than we realise.

This is why I’ve moved away from the trend of selling perfumes like products with fixed meanings. Instead, I “paint” with perfume. I create visuals and narratives around scents — matching them to artworks, characters, and films — to open a door for interpretation rather than close it. A fragrance doesn’t need to be something you wear to feel confident or get compliments. Sometimes, it’s a bottled memory you never even spray, just something you revisit like a photograph.

Conceptually, I see perfumes in dialogue with contemporary art. I’ve even written about the levels of abstraction in perfumery compared with those in contemporary art practices, and the parallels feel obvious to me. Perfumes, like artworks, have layers of meaning that unfold over time. To build a picture around a scent — an atmosphere, a narrative, a texture — is, to me, absolutely magical.

By pairing scents with images and stories, I give them a world to live in — a mood, a colour, an atmosphere — so people can feel the scent before they even smell it. It’s about experience over instruction, emotion over marketing, and leaving space for your own story to begin.

Transcript:

Asya: Tell me a little bit about yourself and your practice, and how you started to do what you do?

Alexandra: My name is Alexandra. I’m an arts professional. I have been working at Tate for last couple of years, and I have worked everywhere, from the curatorial department to the development department, you name it. I did lots of different projects.

And recently, I started to do my own thing, which is a blog about the correlation between art and perfumery. So I basically review the exhibition by pairing them with different perfumes. It was a long way coming to it, but it was an exciting one. Asya: And how did you first get the idea for the practice you do of matching perfumes and scents with art, movies, and everything?

Alexandra: You know how, when you are a kid, and the adverts on TV are on one by one, but you are not really paying attention to any of them? I was mesmerised by the fact that the only ads with no words were perfume ads. They managed to just use the visual to make you feel something.

There would be maybe one word at the end, J’adore. But it was enough. They build a whole meaning around the scent just by using strong visuals. And it really resonated with me, I liked that they didn’t have to say much to express themselves.

And I was always very interested in how our senses correlate, about how we perceive certain things through scent. And that’s exactly where the idea came from. I thought, how can I actually think and explore people’s perception through scents by using something I already have a lot of knowledge about? That’s basically how it started. And then every time I try a new perfume, a picture pops in my head, and I instantly know what to pair it with, or sometimes vice versa. Sometimes I try a perfume, and I’m thinking, oh, I know how it’s going to look like, or I see a picture, and I’m like, oh, I know how it would smell. So I think it’s all like drugging from this unconscious scent memory that stayed with me throughout the years.

Asya: You mentioned that you take a perfume and then a picture pops into your head. So is that how you usually match them? Or are there times when you see something visual, and then you come up with a scent?

Alexandra: Sometimes it just comes to me. Honestly, mostly maybe through intuition. I think it’s a very interesting way of doing it because I have so many options to choose from. And it can be misleading at the same time, as it is an advantage, it could be a struggle as well. Because there are so many things to pick from.

But I must say, I think because I work at Tate and see a lot of new exhibitions, that’s what really helps me shape the way I think about perfumery.

We already have scents linked to certain memories, right? Everybody does. And I think it’s the same with me, only I sort of imagine new memories. So when I do try a perfume or see a picture, I create this pairing in my head instantly. But I can’t tell you where it starts. I can’t tell you if it starts with a picture or a scent.

I met so many artists who are actually incorporating scent into their practice nowadays, too. And I don’t think they start with an artwork and then create a scent. I think it depends, you know, it depends on the feeling, depends on your perception and how deep you want the audience to experience something.

Asya: Why do you think people resonate with it so much?

These are such big senses for us. There’s sight, and there’s smell. I think perhaps the most memories are held in the smell, and then in the sight.

So why do you think combining these two is so appealing to people and causes such strong, unique emotions? Alexandra: I think it’s because, as I said, we already have these pairings fixed in our unconscious. So I think what I try to do is just help people rediscover those pairings.

It’s all about contrasts and associations as well; the scent that is incorporated in your memory is there for many different reasons: good and bad. The scent that I like could evoke negative emotions in you if it’s connected to a negative memory, and vice versa.

And I think that’s what resonates with people as well. I think the open interpretation of it, the ability to have their own perception of it, of this pairing, because I’m not really telling them this is exactly how it smells. I’m saying this is how I imagine it. How do you imagine it?

It’s funny because when I started to do it, I didn’t know how much the perfumery scene would actually appreciate that, you know, because it’s also quite a closed club. Like, the art world is a closed club; the perfumery world is also a closed club. So I wasn’t sure, but actually, I had such an amazing amount of engagement. Everybody really appreciated it. Asya: Whenever you create a new match, any new piece of work, is there anything specific you want to achieve with each new pairing? Alexandra: I wouldn’t say I want to achieve something, but I definitely want to reclaim the word immersive. Because I do think that over the last, I don’t know, decade, every time we say immersive exhibition, the first thing that usually pops to mind are those spaces with projectors which just project art onto the walls and people just sitting on cushions in the middle of the room, which I find really funny because there’s nothing immersive about it. So what I’m trying to achieve, besides combining those two very closed worlds together, which is a challenge, and I love a challenge, is to reclaim the immersiveness of this experience, to deepen it.

Asya: Rather than telling fake stories, your work uses perfume to open up new layers of perception for people.

Do you think there’s a specific thing that a person would experience with a specific type of your work? And do you go into creating your work with the idea that someone will experience something specific, or does it fluctuate a bit more?

Alexandra: I actually think that the beauty of it is that it’s very open to any interpretations. I don’t really expect anyone to perceive it in any way. And a lot of the time, it really surprises me how people actually react to the pairings.

When I’m making it now, I’m sort of very free of the expectation of it. I’m trying to free myself from expectation. I’m just enjoying it. And it’s really funny because now, speaking with curators, I’m like, oh, I’m gonna do the perfume pairing. They’re like, I’m ready. I’m so excited. I want to see it.

Asya: That’s great. And when you mentioned that you review exhibitions with perfumes and people start to get excited. Even after I looked through your page and some of your matches, I started to. Whenever I watch a movie or go to an exhibition, I have this question in the back of my mind: I wonder what perfume this is, I wonder what scent this is. And I’ve never had it before. So it was so interesting that your page just inspired this new question in me. There’s this whole other sense that is so unexplored when it comes to all types of creativity.

So do you think your work will unlock that for other people? Because I know it did that for me. But is that something that you thought about?

Alexandra: It really makes me happy you’re saying that you now have it in the back of your mind. That really makes me happy because I had it all of my life, and I didn’t know really how to shape it into a practice until recently.

I do think that it would be amazing if it opened a deeper level to the way we see art and the way we experience perfumery. It’s amazing.

I can give you a really good example. I have a friend who is an incredible photographer, but also a perfumer, and she used to be an architect. And she told me this thing, which stuck with me as well: “The way I see it is when I was an architect, I was building something around the sense or around the artwork. So it’s basically like creating a meaning around it.” And this is ultimately why museums exist. They create meanings around artworks, hopefully, without over-explaining it. So that’s exactly what I want people to see and feel.

I really hope that it will bring a deeper level of engagement with art because that’s ultimately what we all need, especially after the pandemic.

Asya: After seeing some of your work, I want to purchase, I think, 20 new perfumes and just match them to different parts of my life. And I’m like, wow, it actually, I think, also motivated me a bit because I’m a very one perfume for winter, one for summer kind of person. I found my scent. I don’t mix it.

But then, after I looked at all that, I was like, you know what? It’s so interesting because maybe some days you don’t feel like this specific perfume. You feel a bit more like lavender and flowery, and sometimes you want it to be a bit sharper. Alexandra: Can’t lie, I wear a different perfume every day. Every day, my mood is different, but totally.

I think especially in niche perfumery, indie perfumery. Now, having met quite a few perfumery brand owners, that’s exactly their goal. Coming back to your question about how this idea popped into my head, it was partly because, a lot of the time, when reading a perfume description, we read about notes, right? Oh, it’s oud, it’s rose, it’s that. And I realised that I can’t connect with this. I can’t just imagine it. I need to create a meaning around this list of notes, you know.

And so thinking about it also got me to think that, oh, many people who are not into perfume, so they have, like, two perfumes or one signature perfume. How can I make them engage with this fragrance world a bit more?

Asya: I also love that you kind of shine a light on some independent perfumeries and independent perfume brands. I also think that’s great, because when you think of perfume, you always think of so many big brands that do everything, but then there are so many other unique scents.

And, I think, for people who don’t necessarily know that or have the time to go deeper into the research of it, your page can actually be such a great starting point.

Alexandra: Also, in today’s world, sustainability really matters to me. I do want to write and collaborate with brands that are sustainable and are sustainably sourcing the notes for their perfumes. I do find it really important.

The funny thing is that many niche brands, from very small to bigger ones, have scents that you would never imagine existing in the fragrance bottle. So many things that will unlock your memory.

But also, big brands don’t always mean good quality. A bigger brand just means lower quality of ingredients. So that’s exactly why I’m aiming for these smaller brands, and I do want to promote them as much as I can.

Asya: You kind of mentioned before, you talked about sustainability and smaller brands, but just in general, I think matching something so personal to people as scent, it’s such an honest practice.

How do you practice this honesty? How do you approach every match and project that you have with just this honesty that is required for this specific kind of process?

Alexandra: It’s funny enough, because I think I was always a very straightforward person, and I think throughout my life, people actually didn’t like it about me. So I think I decided that it’s gonna be my weapon from now on. I think it’s because I just wouldn’t be able to do it if I lied.

We could talk about perception of it all for ages, but ultimately, there are bad scents, and there is bad art. It can be flat, it can be decorative, it can be uninteresting. It can not evoke any emotion. Asya: There is a level of honesty that is immediately felt through your work because I think people can still tell. So you have been doing this for some time. Are there any parts of the process that you still struggle with?

Alexandra: I think something I do struggle with is exactly what I mentioned, which is when something just doesn’t make me feel anything at all, in which case I just can’t. I’m probably going to drop it. I’m not going to do any pairings because that is going to be unfair.

But also, I mean, the perfumery world is very, very interesting and very, very deep, and I am still a beginner in it. If the art world, I can tell you, I’m not a beginner at all. I have two higher degrees, I’ve read lots of books, and I have worked in the industry. When it comes to perfumery, I’m a very, very passionate amateur. I still want to get my degree to know how to create the perfume. But that’s exactly why I’m not selling you the courses on how to perfume based on a film, because that would be unfair, coming back to honesty.

That’s exactly why maybe my interpretations are so honest. And maybe that’s why people can resonate because maybe they feel like they’re growing with me in this area. Because I keep learning and learning and learning about it every day. I don’t think I’ll ever stop.

Asya: Just to talk about what you mentioned a little previously, but to pivot from this practice to your experience in the art world in general.

If you can tell me a little bit about your work in the art world. What you are doing now, and how it informs your practice of matching scents, but also, in general, just about your job at Tate.

An important story to mention is how I started my work at Tate, because that will totally make sense of why I decided to work with perfumery as well.

It was my first job. And I’m very young, very naive; I don’t understand what’s happening, but I’m very happy to be there because I’ve always wanted to work at Tate since I was maybe 16. I remember when I was 18 or so, drunkenly, at the party, I told all of my friends that I was going to move to London and work at Tate, and everybody laughed at me.

But basically, coming back to my first job, I worked in the Public Programmes team, and I did private tours for blind people around our exhibition. I did one of my first tours. I was very nervous because, you know, public speaking, like 30 people and trying to make it as accessible as possible, of course, but also just normally nervous, you know, as anybody would be.

And I remember it was Kusama Mirror Rooms. My first idea was to just talk about the artist, about the exhibition, about what her art was about. Because this is basically what you learn, this text is just to tell people. Halfway through my speech, a blind woman stopped me. She was like, No, I don’t want to hear about that. Can you tell me about what you feel when you see these artworks?

And that really made me speechless. And that really touched me because it really taught me that I am in no position to assume how people want to experience it. And I think that also This experience brought me to this understanding. I want to do it, but I want to do it and in no way explain to people how they should encounter artworks or perfumery.

But that was my first job. And then I worked behind the scenes and collection care, which is basically about everyone making sure the collection stays safe. And then I worked in the curatorial department, and I did big projects, but they brought me back to the scent memory, because I was on the curatorial team for Mire Lee commission for the Turbine Hall last year, which opened exactly a year ago. And it was a very big installation with a Turbine, but it was spinning and dripping these liquids, almost resembling all the liquids in our body that we could merge together, and then we would hang the skin too. It was like a very long-term project.

It was incredible because one of the first pairings that popped to mind was when I worked on this project, because, you know, looking at this quite grotesque but incredible, amazing artwork and those liquids dripping down, so many ideas for how the liquid should smell popped into my head.

I was like, oh yeah, you know what? I’m going to post that. It also resonated with people. Artists would message me about coming and seeing and smelling the artwork, which is really funny. Well, you can try smelling. It doesn’t really smell like much.

And so now in my current position, I work in development, which is basically a fundraising department. So it’s fundraising for all sorts of different projects that we’re doing. Being in the heart of it all really helps shape the way I see art and the way I perceive art as well, which I think really helped me in my practice with perfume.

Asya: Based on your work and on your personal experience at Tate and on your work with artists and perfumery, and in general, the creative industry, what do you think are some things, if there are any, that you can think of, that sometimes stomp the art and creative industry and stop it from growing and developing?

Alexandra: I think it’s the unwillingness to change and adapt to new times, to new generations and accepting the fact that there could be new crazy ideas.

But also, I think it all links back to the pandemic, where, throughout the course of it, the art world obviously wasn’t an essential part of life. And I think going through it and audiences realising that after the pandemic ended, people very slowly started to go back into museums. And I think adapting to those changes and actually achieving a new level of integration with communication and connection with your audiences. This is what’s really important.

I think that’s exactly why I was thinking about this deeper perspective with the scents, because it’s a deeper communication between the artwork and the audience. Asya: Throughout your experiences with any kind of creative work, has there ever been some advice that you were given that was just so bad and something that you would want other people in the industry, if they ever receive similar type of advice, to just avoid?

Alexandra: I don’t think it’s advice per se. I think it’s like an opinion which, thank god, I didn’t listen to.

It was early in my career when I was working with a creative I really admired, who was much older than me. And they told me something that, you know, I was like, ew. They said that I couldn’t achieve something at that age that I was, because they didn’t achieve it when they were the same age, which I think is a lot of crap.

I’m sorry, but it doesn’t matter. It’s the same as it’s never too late, and it’s never too early. And I feel like we never say that it’s never too early for creative expression. And I’m so happy I didn’t listen. I wanted to create a project, and they said, Oh, yeah, well, I had the same idea when I was your age, but I couldn’t do it, so you will not be able to do it.

And I really, really want to say to everybody, whoever encountered the same sort of pressure or the same sort of ageism, you just ignore it. It absolutely doesn’t matter. It absolutely doesn’t matter. And just avoid people like that. Even if you admire their creative practice, sometimes they can just be very egotistical about certain things.

Asya: This kind of advice just comes from such a malicious place of even a little bit of jealousy that there’s this young person who’s so ambitious and believes in themselves and they might achieve something that that person has not achieved at their age, and then they start to discourage you. Honestly, I think I know a couple of people, and I’ve been told that a couple of times. It’s a really good example of horrible advice.

Alexandra: And, you know, as a young person, I can imagine that under this pressure, many people would actually listen and believe that, which makes me really sad. So I want to tell everybody who’s listening to us right now, please don’t listen to this. Y

Asya: One final question for you, and then I’m gonna let you go.

Through your work with Tate, your work with perfumes, with meeting different perfumers, what are some of the most unexpected things that you’ve learned and you’ve discovered about the industry as a whole, about these two industries that seem so closed off?

I think, very interestingly, you have this insight into both of them. So what are some of the interesting things you learned that you think people who just want to get into either of those industries would love to know, and maybe it would be useful for them to know?

Alexandra: I think some of the things that I’m going to say now could be obvious, but they’re not that obvious. First of all, all of those people that you think are hard to be friends with or professional with or just get into their circle, they’re just people. Absolutely nothing about them is really intimidating. It’s all in your head. And I know it because I’ve been through thousands of interviews, and I interviewed myself, and I understand this level of pressure, especially in the art world, because of this competition, this crazy competition.

I really came to understand that a lot of people I work with and people I worked with are real. They are real people with real emotions, with real problems, and they are really not as scary.

Another discovery I want to talk about is going to be a bit black-and-white. But it’s true. I think there are two main kinds of people in those communities: a dreamer and a doer. And it’s very important to establish who you think you are. If you’re a dreamer, you need somebody around you, and you need people around you who are going to be doers. And if you’re a doer, follow the dreamers; they’re going to lead the way and lead your creativity. They were going to listen to you and your creative input, but at the same time, you do need them to achieve higher creative goals.

Another fascinating thing, I guess, and the last one I’m going to mention, is that what really makes this community absolutely incredible and so unique is that you are literally working with people who have magic powers of predicting what’s going to be relevant 10 years from now. I don’t know how they do it. I’m only learning. I really, really want to have this skill. I don’t know if they’re born with this skill or if they acquire it as they go through life, but I think it’s absolutely incredible because, as a director of a museum or a person who’s building a collection or an art advisor, you have to have this quality of almost predicting the future of what is going to be relevant. When I meet people like that, it’s the most inspiring thing ever.

Asya: I think you are predicting the future a little bit with what you’re doing right now, because I think matching all the senses and having this fully immersive experience is the future of the arts and creative world. It’s so great.

So it was so great speaking to you and getting to know this on the level where you’re creating it, because I know that in five years, when you’re matching giant perfumes with incredible private works, I’m not going to be able to get a hang of you. So, I’m glad I got to talk to you.

Alexandra: Thank you so much for inviting me to talk about this practice as well. I’m actually also thinking about doing my own workshops about the pairings. So maybe we’ll see each other.