SENSE: Water Edition 🌊
Oceanic objects and forsaken fluids
‘The sun rises late in this part of the world, and you watch as stars are replaced by a sheet of pale blue, a hot white dot climbing the sky. You didn't bring swimwear, so when you have finished listening to the album, you take off your clothes, and run into the water. Submerging, all you can hear is the rush, the roar. The salt of the sea mingling with your tears.’
- Caleb Azumah Nelson in Open Water
Continuing the thread of last month’s curation for the senses…
SCENT
The fragrance of monsoons, water quenching parched soil, downpour after drought, and rain-soaked earth have all been used to describe Mitti Attar, a concentrated perfume oil of baked clay made in Kannauj, India for centuries.
This scent was later coined as Petrichor by two mineralogists, Isabel Joy Bear and Richard Grenfell Thomas, in the ‘Nature’ journal in 1964. The name comes from Greek mythology and combines petra (rock) and ikhor (the blood of Gods).
The rain acquires a slightly different odor based on location as it arises from ozone molecules, organic compounds, plant terpenes, and geosmin bacteria.
‘It depends on the type of storm, the part of the world where it falls, and the subjective memory of the nose behind the sniff. City rain smells of steaming asphalt, in contrast to the grassy sweetness of rain in the countryside. Ocean rain smells briny like Maine clam flats on a falling tide. In the desert of the southwestern United States, rare storms punch the atmosphere with creosote and sage. In the southeast, frequent squalls leave the damp freshness of a wet pine forest.’
SIGHT
The wet look is a sheer gown that creates the illusion of emerging from the foam of the sea like Venus herself. It’s been worn by many artists who desire the goddess aesthetic Di Petsa embodies. Each bespoke piece is draped and stitched by hand to create the appearance of a soaked garment clinging to the skin.
Dimitra Petsa developed the sustainable textile over 7 months using recycled stretch mesh. She also incorporates embroidery techniques inspired by ancient rituals from her Greek heritage.
Her interdisciplinary background in art, film, fashion, and esoteric research serve to express the ecofeminist theory underpinning these designs.
In 2020 & 2021, Di Petsa held full moon workshops that consisted of guided meditations, movement practices, and poetry offerings. It culminated in the participants alternating between reading and intuitive gestures to create collective performance art.
The accompanying book from which we read includes scene descriptions and poems divided by category: saliva, sweat, tears, breast milk, vaginal fluids/semen, urine, and blood.
WETNESS
Our bodily fluids,
water filtered through our
bodies, bodily water.
Holy Water,
Sea Water.
If you cry in public you must hide it
If you sweat in public you must hide it
If you breastfeed in public you must hide it
shame is self inflicting punishment
It comes from the notion that our expressions of water,
the fact that we come from water,
is something to be hidden
the way we perceive our bodily waters
has an immediate connection
to how we (mis)use and relate to the oceans.
‘Wetness: A Script of Bodily Water’ by Di Petsa is no longer available online but I’m happy to share more from my copy if anyone is interested. Some alternative beach reads could include: Waves by Virginia Vigliar (newsletter), Agua Viva by Clarice Lispector (free pdf versión en español aquí), and The Blue Between Sky & Water by Susan Abulhawa (palestinian novel).
SOUND
Alexis Pauline Gumb’s book Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals is a poetic exploration of what we can learn from our aquatic kin. In addition to the publication, she also collaborated with Toshi Reagon to create these mournful marine meditations:
I’ll also share my own playlist inspired by the depths of water:
TASTE
Clean drinking water:
Life For Gaza: Quenching the Thirst of Humanity by the Gaza Municipality
Gaza Water Desalination Plant Fund by Human Appeal
Water for South Sudan and Hometax in Sudan
Charity: Water and Join for Water in Congo
Additional charities with presence in the Global South can be found here
TOUCH
Aqua Alchemy is a grief ritual centered around water created by Raya Marie Hazell who I met through
’s grief studies. Raya is a talented artist & facilitator who has made additional rituals for mourners available online. Her newsletter is available here.Part of the alchemy is letting the grounding force of a rock hold your pain, so I’ve left a pebbled poem to pair this with.
‘On the shores of the Mediterranean,
I saw humanity drenched in salt,
Face down,
Dead,
Eyes gouged,
Hands up to the sky, praying, Or trembling in fear.
I could not tell.
The sea, harsher than the heart of an Arab,
Dances,
Soaked with blood.
Only the pebbles wept.
Only the pebbles.
“All the perfumes of Arabia will not” grace the rot
Israel breeds.’
- Drenched by Refaat Alareer
gorgeous post!