This book claims a political value for olfactory artworks by situating them squarely in the contemporary moment of various forms of political resistance.
Each chapter presents the current research and art practices of an international group of artists and writers from the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland, Thailand, Sweden, and the Netherlands. The book brings together new thinking on the potential for olfactory art to critique and produce modes of engagement that challenge the still-powerful hegemonic realities of the twenty-first century, particularly the dominance of vision as opposed to other sensory modalities.
The book will be of interest to scholars working in contemporary art, art history, visual culture, olfactory studies, performance studies, and politics of activism.
This book claims a political value for olfactory artworks by situating them squarely in the contemporary moment of various forms of political resistance.
1 Olfactory Politics in Black Diasporic Art 2 Perfumes, Shea Butter, and
Black Soap: The Smell of Resistance 3 Common Scents, a Social Sense of Smell:
Orientation, Territory and the Evidence of Beings 4 The Political Potential
of Smoke 5 Olfactory Resistance at the End of the World 6 Eco-olfactory Art:
Experiencing the Stories of the Air We Breathe 7 Olfactivism: Scents in the
City and Beyond 8 Is There Empathy through Breathing? 9 Olfaction as Radical
Collaboration 10 Chrysanthemum Powder and Other Interspecies Scent Rituals 11
Eat Your Makeup: Perfume, Drag, and the Transgressions of Queer Subjects
under Capitalism 12 Scented Bodies: Perfuming as Resistance and a Subversive
Identity Statement 13 Womens Smell: Towards a New Representation of the Body
14 Scent and Seduction: The Power of Smell in the Stories of Katherine
Mansfield 15 The Olfactory Counter-monument: Active Smelling and the Politics
of Wonder in the Contemporary Museum 16 Shaking Off Disinterested
Contemplation: Toward a New Aesthetics of Smell 17 Malodors and Miasmas: The
Political Potential of Working with Smell 18 Enteric Aesthetics
Gwenn-Aël Lynn is a transdisciplinary artist who builds interactive installations that combine scents, sound, and technology to pose questions about identity, culture, and the political.
Debra Riley Parr is Associate Professor in the Art and Art History Department at Columbia College Chicago. Her current research concerns olfactory art and design in contemporary culture.
