Local Nose

Every time I smell beans with rice I remember my grandparents’ home. The smell transports me to the world as it used to be, and as I used to be, with grandma feeding me beans with rice, and thus the smell serves as a key to an old memory. My project presents porcelain smelling vases that contain smells from my hometown, Jaffa, suggesting that scent can serve as a vital piece in the historical jigsaw puzzle. It stores great knowledge and acts as a key to knowledge hidden kept in the recesses of our memory. The use of vases is evocative of the use of amphorae and urns found in archeological excavations in Jaffa. The vases where the items are collected are reminiscent of the anatomy of smelling organs – the vase has an internal “smelling organ” and a special stand for the item. Please smell from the top of the vase. The project examines the possibility of collecting smells for a future database of the city's smells.