ROBERT WATERS

Conceptual Art Workshop
for the Visually Impaired

Project 6 - Olfactory Interventions

With the intent to explore public action as a creative strategy, we will discuss the purpose of perfume and ideas of marking territories with scent. In groups, students will brainstorm site-specific locations based on the names of perfumes, i.e. Escape at a prison, Obsession at a sex shop, or Eternity at a cemetery. Students will be given a bottle of the perfume of their choice and a disposable camera, and with a friend will ‘mark’ a public territory while documenting their process. The project will provide students with the opportunity to develop and execute a conceptual art project with a friend/colleague while considering the manipulation of "public".

In Mexico City, students based their olfactory interventions on two perfumes - Eternity and Obsession.


Students receive disposable cameras to document their interventions with a friend/colleague.


Students receive the scents with which they will mark (or 'tag') their territory.


One student performs his Eternity intervention in a cemetery.








Another student uses Eternity to reiterate our connection with nature.








With the perfume Obsession, another student tries to mask the odour of garbage.





Again with Obsession, another student marks a poster at the University that portrays a scantily-clad woman dancing.





Yet another student threatens the public with Obsession at a local shopping centre.