On the back of Maurice Joosten's business card, a silvered phrase floats across the otherwise blank expanse: "Solve et Coagula" ("Dissolve and Unite"). For Joosten, 48, this ancient dictum of alchemy provides a motto linking his work as an artist, aroma designer and yoga instructor.
His sculptures flow with an illusion of nonbeing, aquae-vitae transmogrified into insubstantial solid; his aroma designs are engendered by sense, metamorphosing image and instinct to guide his creativity; his body relaxes into space, enfolding away matter as a teacher of Kashmir yoga.
Joosten may not be able to transmute metal to gold, but he is a modern-day alchemist-philosopher.