Matt Morris. Advanced Potions, 2019
Perfumes, family, potions, essences, spells, elixirs, chosen family, tinctures, anointing oils, casein paint medium, friendships, social networks, velvet, foam
Display fabricated by Christopher Lee Hare
Image courtesy of the DePaul Art Museum
1. Twelve anointing oils that Matt Morris’ father, Butch Morris, received as a gift six months before he died in June 2018. In the 1980s, Butch’s Baptist church split over disagreements about whether fragrant anointing oils used for prayer was doctrinally sound. He and his family joined a new church where the use of these oils was integral to religious practices.
2. Catalina Ouyang. death drive joy ride elixir assembled by Matt Morris based on a recipe that Ouyang's mother, Jie Li, inherited from her own parents. E jiao (donkey hide gelatin), Cabernet Savignon, rock sugar, chrysanthemum, hibiscus, noble dendrobium flowers, hawthorn berries, cordyceps mushrooms, white fungus, ginseng, ginger, dried jujubes, shan zha pian (hawthorn candies), rosemary, lychee jelly
3. Michael J. Morris. Love spell, 2018. Patchouli, almond, musk, vanilla, cinnamon. Formula based on spell in Phyllis Curott’s The Love Spell: An Erotic Memoir of Spiritual Awakening. New York: Gotham Books, 2005.
4. Josh Dihle. Casein paint medium, hand-mixed March 2019
Cottage cheese, water, ammonia
5. Babs Forever Yours perfume bottle, ca. 1930s, New York
6. Rhonda Wheatley. Cure Bottle for self-misconception.
Brings one’s consciousness into soul-level awareness of the self, 2019
Found perfume bottle, pink sand, pink Himalayan salt, lavender, helichrysum flowers, calendula flowers, moss, other dried flower petals.
7. Kiam Marcelo Junio / Mahal Healing Arts. Personalized aromatherapy blend gifted to the artist, December 2018
Camellia Seed (Camellia oleifera), Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis), Baobab (Adansonia digitata), Grapefruit (Citrus paradisi), French Lavender (Lavendula angustifolia officinalis), Co-distilled Neroli and Petitgrain (Citrus aurantium var. amara), Frankincense (Boswellia serrata), Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens), Australian Sandalwood (Santalum spicatum), Immortelle (Helichrysum italicum), Atlas Cedarwood (Cedrus atlantica), Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), Gardenia-Agarwood Attar (Gardenia jasminoides, Aquilaria malaccensis), pyrite, amethyst.
8. Dori Midnight. Boundaries in a Bottle.
Witchcrafted with essences of yarrow, spider full moon, rosemary, echinacea, cedar, black tourmaline, citrine, smoky quartz, snowflake, obsidian, stone circle and salt. Essential oils of pine and cedar. Provides radiant protection, clearing, and grounding.
Dori Midnight practices community-based intuitive healing that weaves plant and stone medicine, ancestral and queer magic, and justice work.
9. Liz Moores. Angelique, Eau de Parfum for Papillon Artisan Perfumes, 2014
Fragrance notes: Iris Pallida, Osmanthus, French mimosa, White champac, Orris, Virginian cedarwood, Frankincense
The window in Matt Morris’ childhood bedroom in Baton Rouge, Louisiana opened onto a flowerbed that contained an abundance of irises and an osmanthus tree his mother planted (also known as the sweet olive tree).