ABSTRACT

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.

chapter |9 pages

Introduction

chapter 2|10 pages

Perfumes, Shea Butter, and Black Soap

The Smell of Resistance

chapter 3|12 pages

Common Scents, a Social Sense of Smell

Orientation, Territory, and the Evidence of Beings

chapter 4|12 pages

The Political Potential of Smoke

chapter 6|11 pages

Eco-olfactory Art

Experiencing the Stories of the Air We Breathe

chapter 7|23 pages

Olfactivism

Scents in the City and Beyond

chapter 11|15 pages

Eat Your Makeup

Perfume, Drag, and the Transgressions of Queer Subjects under Capitalism 1

chapter 12|11 pages

Scented Bodies

Perfuming as Resistance and a Subversive Identity Statement

chapter 13|12 pages

Women’s Smell

Towards a New Representation of the Body 1

chapter 14|13 pages

Scent and Seduction

The Power of Smell in the Stories of Katherine Mansfield

chapter 15|13 pages

The Olfactory Counter-monument

Active Smelling and the Politics of Wonder in the Contemporary Museum

chapter 16|15 pages

Shaking Off Disinterested Contemplation

Toward a New Aesthetics of Smell

chapter 17|13 pages

Malodors and Miasmas

The Political Potential of Working with Smell

chapter 18|11 pages

Enteric Aesthetics