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Remembrance of Scents Past

At museums, curators are incorporating smells that can transport visitors to a different time.

(“Let her make furrows in her hair and sprinkle on the aforementioned powder, and it will smell marvellously.”) The text didn’t offer exact recipes—no proportions were provided—so there was an element of improvisation, allowing Marks to act as both historian and artist. For the Docklands show, she pinpointed specific smell memories by consulting oral histories that the museum had collected from people who had lived and worked around the docks; at Chatsworth House, she combed through its extensive archive of menus. Berkeley, I’d sometimes feel homesick for long days of bodysurfing and tidepool-exploring on Southern California beaches with my family; I’d go to the Walgreens on Telegraph Avenue and open a bottle of Sea & Ski—our household’s sunblock of choice—and huff it right there in the aisle.

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