Slow Smoke, Slow Soap, 2013–2015
A trio of custom fragranced candles smelling of the kitchen place & Olvera St.
Slow Smoke… was an evolving exploration into the powers and possibilities of scent and smelling as collapsers of a private, comfortable, domestic space (the home), with a public, civic, historic space (Olvera St.).
PART ONE for Olvera St. — Realized for Originally From Australia, a two-person exhibition with Jonathan Takahashi at E—6 Olvera St. This show included bi-lingual PR materials and printed matter and was installed entirely one foot off the ground. Translation by Kellie Kemp. Risograph printing by Devon Tsuno/Concrete Walls. Exhibition stewarded by the Chinese American Museum, Los Angeles, CA — PDF (takeaway).
PART TWO for the Home — A limited edition of twenty candle trios poured into hand-thrown earthenware vessels. Ceramics by David Whitaker.
PART THREE for Chinatown — The very last of the scented candles, poured into 108 unfired pinch pots. My friend and poet, Janelle, wrote a trio of poems, one for each fragrance. The poems, handwritten and hand-bound into small books, were read among the forceful scents in that sauna of a room. Poetry by Janelle DolRayne.
Fragrances by Ashley Eden Kessler. Project sponsorship by the Institute for Art and Olfaction.