CHOKRA | OUD (Awake to Wellness)
Thursday, March 2, 2023 – Sunday, March 12, 2023
Olfactory Art Keller presents OUD (Awake to Wellness), an olfactory performance ritual and exhibition by the artist CHOKRA. OUD (Awake to Wellness) invites audiences to experience multicultural gestures of wellness and ancient spiritual practices accelerated through the presence of the resinous wood known as Oud. Informed from the artist’s extensive field research from the Arabian Gulf, Cambodia, India, Japan, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, CHOKRA will engage with a variety of Ouds for participants to consume in performance while embracing ceremonial practices from the artist’s heritage and creating performance based artworks to transform the space.
For the duration of the exhibit, audience participants are invited to engage with the artist, where specially crafted olfactory and consumable elements of Oud serve as a carrier of multilingual poetry and ritualistic gesture. Extending Oud’s historic significance in ancient spiritual practices to connect with the heavens and consider heightened states of consciousness, the olfactory performance rituals ultimately serve as a catalyst of enlightenment urging participants to awake to wellness.
“Scent has been used in rites of passage across diverse cultures since ancient times. Odors, which in the natural world are often released during material transformation, have been employed during rituals to mediate mental transitions. CHOKRA's performances will offer participants the rare opportunity of being part of an olfactory ritual.” ~ Andreas Keller, Author of Philosophy of Olfactory Perception and Gallery Owner of Olfactory Art Keller
Each olfactory performance ritual is limited to a duration of 14 minutes for a single audience participant. Audience participants are requested to wear white.
Natural aromatics, essential oils, absolutes and enfleurages have been generously provided by ENFLEURAGE (237 West 13 Street, New York, NY 10011, enfleurage.com).
Image Caption: © CHOKRA, 2023. All rights reserved.