Wonderwood

UK, 2010. Directors Brothers Quay. 3min.

Commissioned for a Comme des Garçons fragrance launch, Wonderwood by the Quay Brothers offers glimpses into a mystical world where marionettes and objects – half-alive, half-inanimate – navigate a labyrinth of shadows and mirrors. Using their trademark meticulously crafted stop-motion animation, the Quays conjure an atmospheric ‘wonder wood’ whose tactile, organic textures evoke the scent of cedar, cypress and sandalwood. As they themselves reflected: ‘Comme des Garçons gave us complete carte blanche. We would spray Wonderwood in the air and walk beneath its halo each day to animate. So yes, we were discreetly anointed by these twelve different woody notes from this cologne. We still wear it to this day.’ In this way, the film transforms the heady, invisible sensation of perfume into a lush, ever-changing material world where the lines between smell, sight and touch dissolve, and fragrance becomes a living, cinematic experience.

Past screenings

Grounded: Fashion’s Entanglements with Nature – London
Saturday 31 May 2025, 15:00 | Rio Cinema