KATIE PATERSON
Candle (from Earth into a Black Hole)
2015
Scented layered candle
Exhibition view Frac Franche-Comté
Photo © Blaise Adilon, 2015
Candle (from Earth into a Black Hole) is a scented, white candle which burns down over 12 hours. The candle creates a journey through space via smell; as if taking off from Earth, journeying to the Moon, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, the stars, all the way into a Black Hole. The candle is formed of 23 layers, each containing a unique scent reflecting each place or planet. The Clouds and Troposphere smell like ‘water, humidity, wet basement, washed towels’ and the Ozone like ‘the clean smell after a thunder storm.’ The Moon is scented like ‘burnt gunpowder’ and Titan, Saturn’s Moon with ‘sweet and bitter almonds, cherry, slight benzene.’ Mars, an ‘old penny’.