“Of all the senses, that of smell bears clearest witness to the urge to lose oneself in and become the ‘other’. As perception and the perceived -both are united- smell is more expressive than the other senses.” (Dialectic of enlightenment. Stanford University Press, Horkheimer and Adorno, 1979, p.184)
Auras is a project that investigates the theme of identity through chemistry, perception, connotations and physical interactions.
Contrary to other human senses, the way we perceive a scent is not as controllable as seeing or hearing. One can look away or block our ears. Scents on the other hand, in order to be perceived, must physically penetrate our bodies by entering our nostrils and binding with receptors.
As it is not the perception of the smell that one has control over, it becomes its connotations and what we assimilate it with, whether it triggers a memory, an emotion, whether we like it or not, or whether it plays with codes of femininity, masculinity or both, whether it is clear or blurred, direct or layered … Playing with these notions, Auras is a series of bespoke scents that were designed specifically for individuals that surround me. Based on my perception of them, both their physicality and what emanates from them; the scents portray some of their traits and try to collage different elements of postures, activities, behaviours, passions, places…
Once it is applied to the individual, the way in which the scent interacts with the body and reacts to the skin is uncontrolled, organically shifting due to the individual’s body hormones, temperature, and skin composition.
Finally, the unique scent that exudes from the person, becoming a tangible aura, can be perceived and interpreted by all those who surround him or her.
The invisible and volatile gaseous substance becomes a threshold to encounter, imagine and intimately engage with the other.
Hand blown glass bottle
