New Senses In Art

This essay considers Zarina Bhimji's 'She Loved to Breathe–Pure Silence', offering a multi-sensory analysis linked to its themes of diaspora, transit, relocation and trauma.  When installed, the work comprises 4 panels suspended over a carpet of spices scattered on the floor. In storage at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the four panels may be viewed by request on table stands. Three of the panels contained photographs laid on muslin, sandwiched between perspex. The fourth contains on one side a pair of surgical latex gloves laid on muslin, and on the other a reproduction of the artist's visa stamp. Each panel is bordered on one face at the top edge with red and blue dry transfer lettering. The essay considers the differences of perspective and perception between these two viewing situations and variant installations. Also discussed are the changes over time to the material condition of the work from its creation in 1987. This is the first essay I wrote on this compelling work.

Perfume is not a common object for media studies, but the devices created
to spread and store perfume challenge, in a specific way, two major issues of
media theory: novelty and proximity. This chapter outlines the ways in which
the history of olfactory devices appears to be tied with the general history of
olfactory culture. The focus on mystic references to perfumes in the nineteenth
century demonstrates how our obsession for body odours originates in a
combination of fascination and repulsion, a need for sublimation. The perfect
deodorization that affected society, including in theatre architecture, left us
with a strong fear and nostalgia of body smells that are still perceptible in
contemporary olfactory art.