Silueta

2022
Eau de Parfum
Carter Weeks Maddox - Chronotope

Citationals Series No. 2: A Perfume Because of Ana Mendieta

Carter: An elegy for one of Hanna Wilke's contemporaries, Ana Mendieta, who lived most of her life in exile from her home country of Cuba and whose life was cut tragically short by femicide at the hand of her husband. The perfume’s name is taken from the powerful, peaceful, gorgeous images and videos Mendieta created called the Silueta portraits, which depict her body’s absence in the landscape. Before I made Silueta, I’d written formulas by dropping materials directly onto my forearms. But here, I ruled that the instant any material touched my body would be the moment I was finished with the perfume. I also published it without a notes list to further remove myself from influencing the wearer’s experience. My hope in doing so is that this perfume might approximate the effect Mendieta’s Silueta portraits, which stop me in my tracks anytime I see them, have always offered me—as well give wearers an opportunity to consider the importance of art and artists, particularly what it is we miss in their absence.

Dave: Salty, mineralic citrus and green galbanum bridged by watery florals and grassy vetiver to moss and gentle wood-smoke. A memory of the body as water, earth and atmosphere.