Jingyue Zhang

Scented Traces is a personal exploration of how smell can evoke memory, intimacy, and a sense of belonging. Rooted in my childhood experiences of accompanying my grandmother to the vegetable market, the project focuses on two dishes she often made for me—cabbage fried with pork and mushroom soup. From these dishes, I chose cabbage and mushroom as symbolic visual elements to reconstruct the emotions and textures tied to her cooking and our shared moments.

Through fashion styling, material manipulation, and photography, I translated these sensory memories into visual narratives. The project examines how everyday ingredients can carry invisible traces of love, home, and time, while also questioning how deeply embedded memories can be reimagined through image-making.