“An OLFACTORY ARTWORK is a work that uses the sense of smell as its medium. Of all of my works, this is perhaps my favorite because it can reach beyond gallery walls. It moves through the world on people’s bodies.”

-Regan Rosburg

The smell of rain is also known as “petrichor.” It has some common attributes but is subtly unique to different regions. It is strongest after a dry spell when the rain softly hits the ground.

The smell of rain is 450 million years old, and one could almost consider it to be “alive.”

Its biological beginnings have echoed through millennia. It maintains the signature evolutionary leap taken by a tiny soil bacteria (Streptomyces), which found a way to reproduce by releasing a chemical to attract small arthropods (see image, below). This evolved adaptation not only worked, but it was so successful that it spread around the entire planet.

The smell of rain has wafted through the nostrils of dinosaurs, the drenched canopies of ancient forests, and the lands of our first human ancestors. Our love of rain smell is a recognition we share with generations of insects and animals spanning continents. Air, land, and sea animals have breathed in the chemical signature, though human beings can distinguish it in smaller amounts than sharks can distinguish blood in the water.

Rain is part of our planet’s memory. To smell rain is to be reminded of a much greater story on this planet, one that spans place and time.