new york day 8

glorious giant 

a spiced voluptuary

 howling mystery

today i walked to union square and joined artist elizabeth demaray on her lichen for skyscrapers tour, combining my processional work with an educational afternoon

(she's on the bottom fire escape installing a lichen garden)

i ended up giving her the day #8 bottle of perfume since she liked it so much, a good trade for a baggie of her work

the perfume was a mix of green tea, lemon, and honeysuckle, sweet but a little tangy, with some vetiver to give it a little longer life

shot another video of me sitting in union square wearing perfume, affecting the molecular atmosphere around me, and overdubbed the audio from my walk

new york day 7

today's scent was suited to me personally, something spicy, with a sweet accent, whether it's floral, vanilla, or another smoky note. moving into the fall/winter i like a rich, layered fragrance. it's a stretch for me to try and personify a new smell each day, so this one just came more naturally

composed of black opium, cade, vanilla, and narcissus




i also decided to make a short film, while beginning to re-read the flaneur by edmund white

thinking about the blurred lines between perfume, prayer and poetry, i'm going to let the scent itself be the prayer today, a nod to what prayer, poetry and perfume can embody: passion, longing, unfulfilled desire, celebration, personal expression, memory


(and sorry this was published the next day, forgot to make it official!)

new york day 5

i was thinking about this photo i took yesterday, and a translation system, the difficulty of mediation, of words having to describe or flesh out smells (or colors or forms for that matter, i'm reminded of the movie artemisia, where her teacher says, "we say too much in front of paintings")

so i decided to use the photo as a map for today's perfume

mostly citruses, a touch of floral, and vetiver 

and i loved the thought of a visual being a prayer too, a memory or a hope, and so i like the idea of that picture being the name, being the prayer, and taking the place of the words, knowing it doesn't always have to be this linguistic thing we partake in

i also love playing with scent and taste, so i tried a cantaloupe/chai popsicle and it was really wonderful in conjunction with the scent

after my performances i'm trying to make it through as many galleries during my off-times as i can take in one day, and went to a few today

i was struck by a show at the pace, titled social media, and penelope umbrio's work (she also uses craigslist, as i've done for a couple of other shows) and found a bunch of people having posted their tv for sale, and the reflections are very explicit! 

 one show i used craigslist for is coming up in reading, pa through billboard art projects:

saturday, october 22, 2011 from 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.

location: route 222 and kutztown rd temple, pa 19560. See map

i found listings for people using their sense of smell in some fashion in their posting

i took their personal-screen digital declaration (most were in the personals), and am making it all the more public on the large-screen digital billboard:

new york day 3

today i wore a more fruity (pear) and floral (jasmine) scent with a dash again of cade (dark, smoky), and it seemed to get more attention for sure 

i did chose to spend some time in one of the churches on 14th today, to pray and to experience some of the ritual of people who spend time in that space on a daily, or weekly basis

then of course, by the end of my performance i walked by a man in short shorts yelling to a bus "jesus loves you! jesus loves you! and jesus loves you everybody on the bus! let's pray..."

fear of the dark is a protein sweethawt

dead metal hey gorgeous

fronds clatter hallucinating

no habla espanol boca grande?

you got a boyfriend?

i just wasted a block

new york day 2

today i walked down 14th street to the chelsea pier and sailed through the hudson bay wearing my day 2 perfume. since i had tried something kind of spicy yesterday, i went for a more natural and fresh scent today, partly to compliment the day's activities, although i'm always overpowered by the main ingredient: galbanum. every time i get this in my nostrils i have a hard time smelling anything else in the vicinity, and perhaps that is how my fellow pilgrims experienced my presence 

ok bugflower, 

sweet fern i will break no bones, 

who are you in there?

here in new york!

just arrived this morning, and have been walking up and down 14th all day getting the feel for things

this is one side of the hudson i'm walking to, by the meatpacking district and alexander mcqueen's store

here's an image of one performance from tonight's opening festivities

smells in new york

for some of my previous study in scent i found this great project on mapping new york by smell

from what i gather i'll be kind of around the bowery area, with scents of "hard-to-place perfume," which i will hopefully be contributing to

i've been utilizing a few different maps in addition to jason logan's who wrote the article

this one, in addition to my google maps image

i believe i'll also be traversing mid-town with "sporty perfume" and west village with "italian cologne, chaps and bourbon"

i'll have to concoct recipes to compliment or create dissonance

i continue to run into people who have purchased my previous projects and have fallen in love with smelling, and smelling like, an art piece i created. kind of a great compliment

i also thought i'd include an image of a previously-boraxed garment

this was my fall 2009 skirt