TOMBSTONE is a series of five olfactory artworks that examine mortality as both intimate awareness and shared cultural construct. Each piece takes the form of a tombstone-shaped vessel—minimal, uninscribed, refusing the authority of others to dictate the meaning of a life.
The works use fragrance as a medium, turning scent into a language of inquiry, ritual, and defiance. Each “tombstone” carries a unique olfactory composition, along with a corresponding handcrafted texture and color using materials including paint, cement, and sand, embodying a series of taboo-breaking attitudes and scenes: (1) the first awareness of mortality, (2) the joy of a funeral, (3) the return home in a coffin, (4) the unnecessary visit to the cemetery, and (5) the faded green that nourishes new leaves. Together, they form a reflection on death and the vitality of living.
The project stands at the threshold of design, ritual object, and perfumery art: at once bottle and monument, ephemeral and permanent. The tombstone itself is a cross-cultural object, recognized across humanity. By stripping it of words and placing it in dialogue with scent—an art form that vanishes even as it is experienced—TOMBSTONE asks how we face impermanence, and how we might reclaim authorship of our own stories.
