Bodies Odors Trauma Disease
at Olfactory Art Keller
25A Henry Street
November 17, 2022 to January 7, 2023
Opening Reception: November 17th from 4 to 7pm
Bodies Odors Trauma Disease is an olfactory exploration of the human body in all its fragility. It combines three multisensory projects, Jiabao Li’s Menstrual Garden, Curatela Placebo’s You Keep Me Under No Smell, and the collaboration between David Falsberg and Mary Jones, The Coma Aroma Chronicles.
Menstrual Garden
Jiabao Li
Menstrual Garden is a scientific investigation and multisensory installation. It contains the smells of fresh menstrual blood, stagnant menstrual blood, and menstrual pain as well as 3D printed sculptures of the ten most ubiquitous proteins found uniquely in menstrual blood and of proteins grown out of stem cells that were found in the artist's menstrual blood.
Jiabao Li and Dr. Cooper Galvin will give a presentation on Saturday November 19th at 6pm:
Menstrual Garden: Could stem cells in menstrual blood host the fountain of youth? What gives menstrual blood its unique smells? Dive into menstrual effluent with artist Jiabao Li and biochemist Cooper Galvin.
You Keep Me Under No Smell
Curatela Placebo
You Keep Me Under No Smell is a complete kit for empathic first aid for olfactory loss. It contains
- a booklet that contains testimonies, interviews and experiences concerning issues such as smell loss, sensory isolation, and olfactory hallucinations.
- pills of monodose soap that recreate a faded perception of odors when sanitizing the hands
- gel that emulates the deodorization process.
- a fragrance that recreates the “smell of no smell” to stimulate empathy towards those who live with olfactory disorders
on Friday January 6th at 6pm Marina Marques will talk about the genesis of You Keep Me Under No Smell, and the research on anosmia as a collective and social symptom that inspired the first aid kit of smell loss. With streaming interventions by Margherita Falqui, Silvia Marchese and Emma Lucchini about the creation of Under No Smell, the smell of no-smell reproducing the only olfactive perception felt by anosmic subjects.
The Coma Aroma Chronicles
David Falsberg and Mary Jones
The Coma Aroma Chronicles honors survivorship in extremis through the eyes of one survivor, David Falsberg, who found solace from pain and trauma in the creation of olfactory art. Loss of vision begat alpha nose prowess and eventual fruition through the creation of fragrances that commemorate life in a coma and its traumatic aftermath. The Coma Aroma Chronicles offers two fragrances at the nexus of real-time experience, Falsberg's memoir, Coma Life So Beautiful, delivered written and in spoken words, and musical loops that reflect the shock and awe of his experience.
The multisensory experience is completed by Mary Jones' paintings inspired by David's fragrances and writings. Jones embeds X-rays of David Falsberg and other people in her abstract gestural paintings. Implications of mortality, invasive surveillance, and the common experience of medical imaging are layered into her associations with the two fragrances Skin Graft Ltd. and PTSD EDP. Nerve endings, memory, and dream travels are grounded in the biography of Falsberg’s traumatic experience and survival after Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis.
Mary Jones and David Falsberg will discuss their collaboration on Friday, December 30th at 6pm in the gallery.