RCA School of Architecture ResearchRCA SoA Research

She Still Wears Kohl and Smells like Roses is a glass intervention that reconnects glass manufacturing in Palestine to the female body. Glass vessels produced in Palestine during the Roman Empire were often used for perfume bottles, cosmetic tubes, and rosewater sprinklers for wedding ceremonies and cleansing rituals.

Not only are these objects vibrant in their embedded memory and connection to scent, they are also active vessels in carrying the history of the material culture. The rivers and sands used to produce the glass are now neglected, rotting canals, that no longer embody the healing and spiritual ancestry they once held.

This collection is a set of replicas of original vessels from Palestine displayed at the V&A Museum glass gallery. The replicas were blown by the Twam family and aged by anonymous antiquities forgers in an unknown location in Palestine. They are currently active in making forgeries for the black market.