Lavender Shrine
Laser cut plywood, CNC cut maple, walnut veneer, balsa wood, natural ochre and azurite colorants, glass, and lavender oil
12" x 5" x 4"
2016
Scent Shrines is a series of wall mounted sculptures that highlight the relationship between smell and color. Our brains rely on other sense indicators when processing odors; often a word, color, or shape is required as a companion to scent in order to fully identify it. The Scent Shrines, inspired by Buddhist traveling shrines called Zushi, reinforce this automatic processing by providing an associated color clue related to the featured plant. Interacting with odors is a very personal experience, often a person has memory associations with a particular smell. The shrine form not only draws the viewer in to experience the scent and color with its intimate scale, but also elevates the contents, and the viewer's memory, to the sacred.
