Czacarri Muli
he/him
Under Your Nose
You smell.
Did that offend you?
Utilising illustration as a tool of communication, Czacarri challenges perceptions of our least engaged sense. Being informed by Orientalism by Edward Said, he uses picture making in a process-led approach to explore the ways the fragrance industry has historically shaped the idea of the other.
Interested by acts of archiving and who archives them, Czacarri disseminates rich narratives to children in a mixed media approach to embed a rooted knowledge through an alternative history of perfumery from the beginning of time.
In a scented cabinet accompanying the book, he uses aroma chemicals as an interactive way to give people the language to talk about fragrance as not just a fantasy. Where learning becomes an entry way into decolonising the invisible realities that continue to divide.
Pastels, washes and paint contextualise a gated industry, where Czacarri makes the intangible, tangible.
Scented Cabinet, single aromachemical fragrances and 120 page book.
Back cover, A history of fragrance from the very beginning of time.
Spread, You burned the plants around you, trying to connect with something greater. Through smoke you wafted upwards in the language of juniper, myrtle, myrrh and frankincense and abundance.
Close-up of spread, And it would happen again. Men would whip men under the bloom of cinnamon. Crying clove and golden vanilla. Harvested and uprooted again and again.
Frontispiece
Close-up of spread, Until, you made heads roll. Artisans hid under air thick with gunpowder and iron.
Close-up of spread, You grounded oleander, peach blossoms and gardenias, cassia and rue, and shiso in stone. Out from this burned incense. Fireworks that sparkled through the dark.
Research
Aromachemicals inside shelves with illustrated scent cards.
Scent cards.
Research wall.