Keeping the doctor away! Clue perfumey asks 29 artists to draw an apple

Despite their everydayness, apples are a pretty awe-inspiring fruit. Coming in hues of vivid green, rosy red and golden yellow, with a shiny glow and satisfying roundness, it’s not hard to see why the apple was the crop that seduced Eve. Perhaps the lesser revered part of the fruit, however, is its core, often flung into the nearest bin once the handler has got to its seeds. But that’s not if Clue has anything to do with it. The independent perfumery’s most recent release is a striking stone sculpture of an apple core bathed in aromatic oil, a creation that doubles up as both a piece of art and an olfactory experience.

The project was an “unusual” one for Clue, says graphic designer Caleb Vanden Boom, who co-founded the perfumery alongside perfumer Laura Oberwetter. Typically for the brand, scent leads and visuals follow, but this time round that process was flipped on its head. “We started by experimenting with porous stone materials for a sculptural diffuser,” says Caleb. “We liked the idea of making a small art object for the home that looked exactly like what it smelled like.” While the pair had a very long list of objects this could be, they found themselves gravitating toward the core. “There was something very charming about elevating an everyday item, especially one that borders on looking like garbage, into a precious object,” says Caleb. The scent was then based around the idea of the ‘Every Apple’ (now the sculpture’s title), taking into consideration every variety, part and stage of the apple – even down to the moment it begins to “soften and rot”.

To celebrate the release of the sculpture, Laura and Caleb, invited 29 artists to interpret the humble fruit in their own unique way; as the smell they wanted to create was so mutlilayered, the pair realised that having as many visual voices as possible would be a fitting tribute to the creation. “We wanted the final set of drawings to feel truly varied and to represent a mix of styles, voices, and perspectives,” says Caleb. It’s true, the final 29 show the fruit in all its glory – some zoom in on the mottled colour of their skin, others emphasise their woody stems, while many enhance the bulbous form of their bodies – and the range of techniques on show is vast: from digital dots and ethereal airbrush to collage and swift charcoal lines.

The collaborators include friends, like Noelia Towers who used silver stars stickers – “it almost sparkles on the page!” says Caleb – and Eleanor Wallace, who made her own dye from Jonathan apple skins to use as her as paint, as well as creative powerhouses, like Gay Reineck. “She worked with Saul Bass and Charles Eames during her career, and she has a beautiful series of typographic fruit drawings made in 1967,” says Caleb. “I found them while researching and asked if she might create one of an apple more than fifty years later. I may have actually pulled her out of retirement for this project!” Finally, the invite list was also extended to family, and charmingly so. One apple, craftily created with ice lolly sticks and pipe cleaners, was created by Laura’s four-year-old nephew.

Working as a small two person studio, for Caleb and Laura collaboration has always been a central tenant of Clue, not only because it’s a way for them to “work with people we find interesting and admire”, but because of the range of perspective it brings to the brand. As each scent on its virtual shelf has a visual universe of its own, and “collaborations in things like illustration and photography all layer together with our work in ways we could never create alone,” says Caleb. “Bringing in other artists widens the range of the visuals and lets each project grow into something that feels hopefully bigger than the two of us.” The Every Apple project is a perfect example of that ethos, bringing together multiple voices to make a beautiful body of work that speaks to the everlasting charm of the apple, and the universal nature of smell.

Every Apple can be purchased on the Clue website here. Each one comes with a poster of one of the artist’s apple drawings.