2013

‘Official Ugly Face Folder’ (2013) — from 12. April 2020 (WeTransfer notes): “It’s a mixed bag, but could be kept together in the archive and labelled as such (‘Ugly Face Folder’). It’s all subjective, what seems ugly when one looks at oneself. This was an attempt at ‘control’ almost by calling the images ugly I could somehow ameliorate the ‘ugliness’ I felt looking at them.” – SMW.

‘Official Ugly Face Folder’ (2013) — from 12. April 2020 (WeTransfer notes): “It’s a mixed bag, but could be kept together in the archive and labelled as such (‘Ugly Face Folder’). It’s all subjective, what seems ugly when one looks at oneself. This was an attempt at ‘control’ almost by calling the images ugly I could somehow ameliorate the ‘ugliness’ I felt looking at them.” – SMW.

‘Official Ugly Face Folder’ (2013) — from 12. April 2020 (WeTransfer notes): “It’s a mixed bag, but could be kept together in the archive and labelled as such (‘Ugly Face Folder’). It’s all subjective, what seems ugly when one looks at oneself. This was an attempt at ‘control’ almost by calling the images ugly I could somehow ameliorate the ‘ugliness’ I felt looking at them.” – SMW.

‘Official Ugly Face Folder’ (2013) — from 12. April 2020 (WeTransfer notes): “It’s a mixed bag, but could be kept together in the archive and labelled as such (‘Ugly Face Folder’). It’s all subjective, what seems ugly when one looks at oneself. This was an attempt at ‘control’ almost by calling the images ugly I could somehow ameliorate the ‘ugliness’ I felt looking at them.” – SMW.

‘Official Ugly Face Folder’ (2013) — from 12. April 2020 (WeTransfer notes): “It’s a mixed bag, but could be kept together in the archive and labelled as such (‘Ugly Face Folder’). It’s all subjective, what seems ugly when one looks at oneself. This was an attempt at ‘control’ almost by calling the images ugly I could somehow ameliorate the ‘ugliness’ I felt looking at them.” – SMW.

‘Official Ugly Face Folder’ (2013) — from 12. April 2020 (WeTransfer notes): “It’s a mixed bag, but could be kept together in the archive and labelled as such (‘Ugly Face Folder’). It’s all subjective, what seems ugly when one looks at oneself. This was an attempt at ‘control’ almost by calling the images ugly I could somehow ameliorate the ‘ugliness’ I felt looking at them.” – SMW.

‘Official Ugly Face Folder’ (2013) — from 12. April 2020 (WeTransfer notes): “It’s a mixed bag, but could be kept together in the archive and labelled as such (‘Ugly Face Folder’). It’s all subjective, what seems ugly when one looks at oneself. This was an attempt at ‘control’ almost by calling the images ugly I could somehow ameliorate the ‘ugliness’ I felt looking at them.” – SMW.

‘Official Ugly Face Folder’ (2013) — from 12. April 2020 (WeTransfer notes): “It’s a mixed bag, but could be kept together in the archive and labelled as such (‘Ugly Face Folder’). It’s all subjective, what seems ugly when one looks at oneself. This was an attempt at ‘control’ almost by calling the images ugly I could somehow ameliorate the ‘ugliness’ I felt looking at them.” – SMW.

“How did it your Monument to Depression piece start, and what was the first perfume?” – AC. “The work started out as therapy and I did not know I was making a work. I had been hospitalized for 6 months in 2003 for manic depression, that’s when I got my formal diagnosis. During the hospitalization period, a good friend sent me a perfume smelling strip/little paper she had tried at a department store (Galeries Lafayette) in Berlin. It was from a company/brand/perfumer called Annick Goutal, French, who worked together with a mentor called Henri Sorsana. Annick was originally a model and classically trained concert pianist, and through coincidences in her life discovered perfumery. Before her the most famous female perfumer was named Germaine Cellier (a pioneer, like Annick, but Germaine liked bold challenging difficult accords in her perfumes whereas Annick developed mainly romantic florals). The perfume smelling strip that my friend sent me was thus by Annick Goutal and it is called ‘Eau de Charlotte’ made for Annick’s daughter in I think 1981. https://www.fragrantica.com/pe... I see it was composed or the formula is from 1982. The smelling strip was devoid of smell, the perfume had evaporated. So I went out to look for a tester bottle to smell, there used to be an Annick Goutal boutique in Rotterdam run by Lianne Tio. I think Robin and I went there to test things. My perfume love goes back to 1987 I think when I was 13, when the first ‘Benetton’ perfume for women came out, it was called ‘Colors’. I smelled it in a Benetton boutique in Lawrence, Kansas near where I come from in Topeka, Kansas, USA. I thought Benetton was so glamorous and international. It turns out that their first feminine perfume (although perfume has no gender it’s all marketing) was very special and mixed basil with pineapple and a host of other things. Delicious. But I was not allowed to buy the perfume or use it by my parents decree because it was marketed to women. Gender roles were pretty strict in those days where I come from, and in the Jewish community where I was raised. It was only about 6 years ago that I finally got around to buying a bottle of the Benetton perfume on eBay, a vintage bottle. It was very cheap, it’s legendary but weird (like me, haha). I answer this question differently every time. Because after the Benetton my first feminine perfume I discovered and used in about 1994, the original ‘Angel’ eau de parfum from Thierry Mugler. I was and am a huge Mugler fashion fan and that’s why I was wearing Angel, this was when I first came to Europe and moved away from my family. During my teens I had used ‘Aztek’ from Yves Rocher and ‘Smalto’ by Francesco Smalto and ‘Xeryus’ from Givenchy. All marketed to men. I think the first Paul Sebastian was also one of my perfumes, more citrus/floral. After Angel from Thierry Mugler I used ‘O de Lancome’ eau de toilette and ‘Eau Dynamisante’ from Clarins, this would have been around 1995. I left a big bottle of Angel next to the heating/radiator in 1994 and boiled the whole bottle to beyond repair… Around 1999 I started using the original ‘La Prairie’ which was composed in 1993 (or the composition comes from that year). I wore this exclusively for several years, the eau de parfum, as I was obsessed with skincare and specifically La Prairie. I wish I had begun collecting much earlier but I did not realize how fascinating the people are behind perfumes, how creative, how philosophical, and often how kind. Around the time of 2002 in Berlin I came across this perfume, also at Galeries Lafayette that I mention above. A saleswoman came and gave me some to smell and I had never smelled anything like it: https://www.fragrantica.com/pe... Gorgeous. I now have the eau de parfum and the eau de toilette. When I first started collecting seriously I started getting interested in very vintage/older perfumes, and the first I remember asking my mother to buy for me (after I came out as queer my mother became very supportive of my ‘feminine side’ as well as what she knew to be the ‘masculine’ one) is called ‘White Shoulders’ from Evyan. The formula comes from the 1940s, here is what my bottle looks like: https://www.fragrantica.com/pe... There was a company in the USA called Long Lost Perfumes/Irma Shorell who relaunced classic perfumes like ‘Crepe de Chine’ from Millot, ‘Casaque’, ‘Ecusson’, ‘Replique’, ‘Bakir’, and the original ‘Uninhibited’ Cher’s perfume from the late 80s. They also had an ‘Apple Blossom’ perfume which I was especially interested in but never bought when it was available. I could probably find it on eBay though: https://www.fragrantica.com/pe... So I guess officially my first little bottle would have been ‘White Shoulders’ by Evyan, a white floral, my favorite fragrance group. I have been interviewed by a now famous perfumer in Zürich called Andy Tauer (Tauer Perfumes) and I might have told him another story. The thing is that collecting started very organically and then there was this curator Annette Schemmel from Germany who had done De Appel’s training program for curators. She was from Munich specifically where I had done some work, so I was wearing a Munich Tshirt once at an event at De Appel and she came over to introduce herself. It was her that listened to me talk about my collection and she helped me see that I had been making a sort of Fluxus sculpture, a counterpart to what my husband Robin and I call our ‘Feminist Art Collection’ which has works by Carolee Schneemann, Hannah Wilke, Adrian Piper, Howardena Pindell, Harmony Hammond and Senga Nengudi. Also Annie Sprinkle, Kirsten Justesen, Lydia Schouten. Annette Schemmel was putting together a show in northern France at the Frac Nord-Pas de Calais in Dunkerque and she invited me to show the collection as a work and my/our Feminist Art Collection as a work. The title came quite easily of the ‘Monument to Depression’ as my renewed awakening to the powers of fragrance in the early 2000s was was brought me out of the deepest depression I have ever been in and perfume continues to do that today. Here is the interview with Andy Tauer: https://www.sands1974.com/inte... When I showed the work in France the bottles, about 170 of them, were just loosely standing and set out on a huge plinth [Amalia I will send you these images they are gorgeous] and at the opening of the exhibit which was called ‘Decollecting’ I performed in my first wig ‘Lemon Pie’ with a black Speedo swimsuit (I was not allowed to be naked) and plastic gel slippers with silver glitter in them and green nylon sparkly butterflies in my hair, hairpins. I just interacted with the audience via Annette, who spoke fluent French, most of the people at the opening did not speak English and my French is minimal. This show in France was around 2008 and I had been collecting seriously for about four years by then. Studying perfume history etc. It’s all like reference and the little bottles are all like animated personalities for me… So again it was this process of therapy that started it all, and as with one of my first seminal works, ‘I’m Proud Of Myself!’ from 1996 (where I tried to become a model and then used the look book images for a work)… I just start living life and then realize that I am making work. So it’s never clear if work comes first or life. They co-exist and influence each other in a processual way. https://www.stedelijk.nl/nl/collectie/4248-sands-murray.” – SMW.

“Have you used your perfume collection for other works? i.e. ‘Acceptance Art’ and ‘It’s Still Materialistic, Even If It’s Liquid (From Me To You)’ with Lydia Schouten performances.” – AC. “I call all my work in all mediums ‘Acceptance Art’, so yes. And in performances perfume often figures heavily, or at least some. I try to sneak perfume into everything I do. Soon I will write an open letter for the Amsterdam poetry platform Perdu and we will hopefully include a perfume element in the letter. I did a performance in Switzerland/Bern in I think 2009 with 25 perfumes from my collection. I have included them as readymades in installations, and just shared whenever and however I can the wonder that is perfume. That performance, ‘It’s Still Materialistic, Even If It’s Liquid (From Me To You)’ with Lydia Schouten (a very significant and relevant Dutch artist who is a feminist art pioneer) was a three hour nude performance giving advice and consultations to visitors at an exhibit opening where the work was installed as a sculpture in Ikea vitrines. I totally loved that performance and got a lot of attention for it, even in the minds of people who weren’t there in person. It seemed to define something particular and create an atmosphere I would like to explore more. It was a sharing of joy and even love.” – SMW. “Do you have an inventory of your perfumes?” – AC. “Yes, please see above. This is pretty accurate, and fun, with pictures and reviews by other perfume enthusiasts. Fragrantica.com is my favourite perfume site, bar none, hands down. Serious and playful at the same time, endlessly fascinating. Here’s to many more perfumed adventures for us all!! You asked me what perfume has that relates to other elements of my work: I would say ‘romanticism’ and ‘spontaneity’ (spelling?) are both aspects of many things I do, and ways that I live and work, that perfumes embody as well. And I wanted to add: My story of how the collection began, which bottle was first, etc. is always different depending on when I am asked, by whom, and why. I remember buying ‘Charles Jourdan’ called the ‘sexiest perfume in the world’ and then ‘Le Male’ by Jean-Paul Gaultier. And I remember going into a perfumery and asking for ‘La Prairie’ eau de parfum, which I wrote about in my answers to you and I was told to try ‘Spellbound’ from Estée Lauder which I ended up buying and loving. But these were for use and not specifically for collecting like the ‘White Shoulders” bottle I mentioned being my first in the collection. Another early fascination was for ‘Jungle Gardenia’ which used to be Liz Taylor’s favourite perfume, and others (I think that was composed in the 1940s or 1950s). You can start with perfume and get to any other sector of society somehow. It is all interconnected and has even been referred to as ‘subversive’. Guides I like and trust are ‘Perfumes: The A-Z Guide’ from 2008 by Tania Sanchez and Luca Turin. And then ‘Perfumes: The Guide 2018’ again by Tania Sanchez and Luca Turin. And for vintage perfumes my favourite book is ‘Scent and Subversion: Decoding A Century Of Provocative Perfumes’ by Barbara Herman (I think this was released in 2013 or 2015 but I am not sure). I am specifically not looking up dates of publication etc. because I like to trust my memory now and not internet’s :)” – SMW.

“What are the most important elements/perfumes (if any)? If you could preserve one of them forever, which one would it be?” – AC. “The most important elements of perfumes would be the flower aspects, white flower essences (especially jasmine, gardenia, ylang ylang, narcissus but there are others)… I guess these also include yellow flowers like mimosa… My last perfume bought always seems to be the most special, and that would be ‘L’Eau de la Reine Margot’ by Nicolas de Barry, an ethereal jasmine perfume, but probably the one I would have to preserve is actually a leather perfume ‘La Nuit’ by Paco Rabanne from the 80s, the original eau de parfum version. There is also honey and spice in this perfume. Once someone said it’s like spraying a classic perfume ‘Tabu’ on a horse and I adore horses… I have tried to tell myself that I love floral perfumes most, or leather, or orientals, or chypres, or aldehydes, etc. but my problem and challenge is that I love them all. ‘Quelques Violettes’ by Houbigant is worth a special mention. But I think ‘La Nuit’ would have to take the cake…(and a contemporary perfume easier to find, is ‘J’Adore Absolu’ by Christian Dior: https://www.fragrantica.com/pe... ).” – SMW.

“What is the role of smell in this particular work (and in your general practice)?” – AC. “That would be, the role of smell, aromatherapy, but so much more. Emotion, memory, solace, comfort, mystery, glamour, femininity (any perfume also those marketed to men…it’s not for nothing that ‘alpha men’ if they exist prefer their queer sex partners to not wear any scent), time travel. I forgot to mention above that when I was very very young my grandmother June, my mother’s mother, had a little empty bottle of ‘Joy’ pure partum/extrait as a showpiece in her showerroom. I was always fascinated by this little empty bottle which had no smell anymore and my grandmother told me her mother Norma had given it to her. So it had history too. Perfume is as conceputal as it is sensual. The brand names, perfume names, bottles, marketing, it ALL has influence on how you experience a perfume. No matter what anyone says to the contrary. When I was hospitalized for depression I went running alot and one of the first smells that woke me up and made me feel centered was the woodsmoke coming out of the houseboats along the Amstel river. But my interest is specifically in perfume and it’s relation to skin and the body. Also smells like shit that are actually erotic, and in history animal ingredients were used to give this slight hint of eroticism (civer, castoreum, musk, ambregris and these days hyraceum and synthetic reproductions) as these animal products which may smell fecal or urinous in dilution smell floral. I love beeswax and honey by the way in perfumes, although I am turning Vegan so I try to bypass animal products these days, sometimes in vintage perfumes that is hard to do. Smell is very social, there is this book ‘The History of Shit’ that is an interesting philosophical poetic account of how our sanitation systems have determined our metropolises. Dominique Laporte is the author, I think — Smell is social because when we acknowledge smell’s power we are acknowledging our humanity and all the things that come with that and how different smells are perceived in different parts of the world and what is considered attractive or repulsive or sometimes both at the same time. Smell is invisible and my work is using behavior, emotions, thoughts, feelings, relationships, as materials which are also all invisible things. I could not have gotten to these invisibilities without my interest and experience of perfume. Here is the inventory of my collection: https://www.fragrantica.com/me... It stands now at 528 bottles and countless samples and miniature perfumes. And this is pretty much an average collection as collecting goes. I know people who literally have 1000’s of perfumes… Smell is a severely underrated sense. It has the power to affect mood, balance, confidence, to calm stress and to provide wonder. I am especially interested in perfume because I do not know how to make such a composition and I do not want to know. A perfumer I respect in the USA, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, told me once don’t worry about What you are smelling, individual notes etc. just pay attention to how a perfume makes you feel. I thought this was good advice and it’s served me well since… Also, I like to try and match perfumes with people, even if I get it wrong I learn something each time I try. And it gives me joy to share complex perfumes with people to share the feeling of wonder. No perfume is uninteresting to me, mass market, niche, high end, cheap, they all have their merits and specificities. I think the social dimension is the most interesting when it comes to perfume. Perfume people have something that draws them together which often outs itself as kind passion. – SMW. “Is there a relation between smell and other core elements to your practice? Gender, memory, emotions? i.e. pro-feminist approaches to olfactory art.” – AC. “Yes there is a direct relation, as I explain above to a degree. Sharing is a big part of what I do. I have started to call performances ‘sharing events’. I love sharing what I am so very fortunate to own. Gift giving as and in my work is also very important, and perfume connects with this. I like giving almost more than I like receiving/getting. I say sometimes that perfume is like ‘spray-on femininity’ to make me more whole as a person and artist, to give me what I miss biologically. Memory and emotions as I describe above are key elements to my artistic thinking, and I am always rehashing the past and feeling it over again. Perfume is a way to experience joy wonder beauty brutality existentialism sensuousness a life force all at once. I consider myself an olfactory artist as much as a painter or body artist, but I just buy my materials readymade. There is a history of artists and perfumes (Dali, Niki di Saint-Phalle, Duchamp, etc.) and celebrities like Cher releasing perfumes, or Elizabeth Taylor who released a whole range of perfumes, these are artistic acts as well. Alain Delon also had an interesting range of perfumes. And then there are perfume ambassadors like Marilyn Monroe or Catherine Deneuve. I would say my all time favorite representations of perfumery are things like Chanel No. 5 pure parfum/extrait. Joy and wonder in life, and transformation of experience into ATMOSPHERE are my key concepts. Atmosphere creation is very important and perfume is excellent at that. And yes I would like to use the word Profeminist here, as I feel perfume is threatening to some forms of patriarchy. Once I showed the collection in Munich and a small group of hetero guy artists were plotting to bomb it, or so they said. It’s one of the only times I’ve actually had to resist the urge to get into a physical fight…” – SMW.