Artistic Statement

Aaron Chittilappilly

When we heard the recording of Margareta's interview, many of the memories she explained had a rich sense of smells. For example, walking through a Birch forest and smelling the fresh birch barks. After discussing about the interview with my partner, we came to the conclusion that we are going to create different scented test tubes which represents different parts of her life.

The reason we chose this idea was because, scent is one of the most strongest sense, therefore it can trigger memories very easily. We can also represent a lot more things with just different scents. So for this project the different scents we will be using are, Orange, Hand sanitizer, Essential Oil, Apple, and trees. We chose these different scents because, Orange represents a lot of her child hood. When she was a child, after WW-II she ate a lot of fresh oranges which she liked a lot. This is her favorite fruit. We used Hand Sanitizer because it represents her years of working in the Bio Lab as this is a very common smell in labs. We are going to use essential oils because it will create a scent which represents Margareta. We used trees because, during and after the WW-II she used to walk through a lot of birch forests when she was young, so the smell of the forest is very strong in her memory.

As I roamed around the woods, gently touching the aged tree barks, a feeling of homesickness caught me unprepared. The smell of the birch wood and the sight of colorful mushroom laying on the ground, I was brought back to the old times. I could feel the breeze tapping my skin, and I could hear the branches cracking under my feet. I just stood in the middle of the wood and sensed the nature surrounding my body. The leaves, flowers, and grasses, I was able to sense ever subtle movement as if time has slowed down.