Meng Du x Aesop: BECOMING (organized by P. art Group),

Aesop Store at Jing An Kerry Center

Shanghai

September 1–October 31, 2026

BECOMING (生有其途) is a solo exhibition by artist Meng Du, now on display at the Aesop Jing An Kerry Center in Shanghai. Part of Aesop’s Fragrance Fables series, this exhibition breathes new life into the brand's signature packaging. Meng Du has transformed more than 200 empty, amber glass Aesop perfume bottles into a suspended canopy of hand-polished and engraved glass rings. Interlocking like delicate, floating leaves and paired with nine works created with vintage, found mirrors, the installation captures the shifting natural light to cast deep botanical shadows throughout the space. "BECOMING" acts as a poetic exploration of memory and transformation, proving that even when a fragrance fades, the vessel's story is far from over.

BECOMING

Where does a story go once a bottle of fragrance has been emptied?

Perhaps it does not truly disappear. It lingers where the glass once held it, and in the memories it leaves behind; and when the vessel is opened again, it returns in another form.

More than two hundred used fragrance bottles have been transformed from vessels into rings, shaped through cutting, engraving, and polishing to approach new textures. No longer holding fragrance, they begin instead to gather light. Ring by ring, they connect and extend, like plants growing along an unseen direction, forming a suspended canopy of leaves before the window.

Nine found mirrors carry this growth into another dimension. Within their reflections, the lines of glass and the forms of plants begin to overlap. A glass ring meets its own reflection, forming the symbol of infinity—a beginning with endless possibilities. The botanical impressions once carried by the fragrances also emerge from memory, transforming between glass and reflection into flowing lines and shifting fields of light that seem to continue growing.

Perhaps disappearance does not mean an ending.

Some things simply find another way to continue.

Forms change. Becoming finds its way.