Three Georges
Photograph, 2016
Archival Inkjet Print, 2022
36 x 24 inches
A/P and Edition of 3
Related Events
Thursday February 10th (4-8pm): Opening Reception
Saturday February 26th (4pm): Q&A with the Artist
Monday February 28th (4pm EST): Online Interview with Gayil Nalls
Saturday March 5th (4-8pm): Closing Reception
The Politics of Perfume Objects: The Avon Suite
February 10th – March 5, 2022
Olfactory Art Keller is pleased to present The Politics of Perfume Objects: The Avon Suite, a multisensory exhibition by the New York-based interdisciplinary artist and olfactory art pioneer, Gayil Nalls, consisting of eight photographs from The Avon Suite and one new scent, The Smell of George Washington's False Teeth,
For The Avon Suite, Nalls arranges and reconfigures often iconic and pompous Avon decanters in ways that give them a new visual narrative. Commodified iconography used to sell synthetic perfumes is situated in a new aesthetic and social context: A bullet sits on top the Liberty Bell; Thomas Jefferson is dwarfed by his handgun. The photographs of these arrangements provoke not only questions about the role of political iconography in consumerism and the social and economic structures within which synthetic fragrances were first deployed on a mass scale, but also about the chemical components contained in the decanters and their environmental and health impact.
The olfactory complement to the photographs’ repurposing of iconography is The Smell of George Washington’s False Teeth, an interpretation of George Washington’s exhale as he started his day after his favorite breakfast. Through the smell of his breath, the Founding Father and First-President can be perceived as a human being.
A catalog is published in conjunction with the exhibition.