Bio-graphy is a new trio of fragrances from longtime Ooga Booga artist Anicka Yi, developed in collaboration with internationally-renowned perfumer, Barnabé Fillion.
Through olfaction, the series invokes historical characters who refused the limitations of traditional "femininity" and posits a future where all femmes are connected in a fluid network. Disrupting the “natural” by means of mutation and hybridized intelligence, Biography represents the power to write one’s life, beyond one’s biology.
Each Biography bottle combines molecular, animal, and industrial elements, in a testament to Yi’s acclaimed sculptural vocabulary. Hailed by the New York Times as “inventing a new kind of conceptual art,” Anicka Yi is the winner of the 2017 Hugo Boss Prize and corresponding solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum. Yi’s artistic practice fuses fashion, sculpture, artificial intelligence, and synthetic biology to create lush and provocative multi-sensory experiences.
SHIGENOBU TWILIGHT: GROUNDED BY A WOODY BASE OF CEDAR, THE FRAGRANCE COMBINES TOP NOTES OF YUZU FRUIT, SHISO LEAF AND BLACK PEPPER AS WELL AS HEART NOTES OF THYME AND FRANKINCENSE.
This scent was originally designed in 2007 by Yi and architect Maggie Peng (and was sold through Ooga Booga since its original inception, and finally retired in 2020).
The first volume in the Biography series, Shigenobu Twilight, is inspired by Fusako Shigenobu, fabled leader of the Japanese Red Army. The perfume’s esoteric notes intimate metaphors of Shigenobu’s stateless existence, exiled in Lebanon while yearning for her native Japan. Originally designed in 2007 by Yi and architect Maggie Peng, Shigenobu Twilight has been specially reformulated for the Biography series by perfumer Barnabé Fillion.
RADICAL HOPELESSNESS: PIQUANT TOP NOTES OF PINK PEPPER, JUNIPER, AND CARDAMOM, AS WELL AS HEART NOTES OF IRIS AND ANGELICA ROOT ARE SMOOTHED BY A LUSH SANDALWOOD AND PATCHOULI BASE.
Based on Hatshepsut, female pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, Radical Hopelessness evokes the ruler’s sharp intellect and radiant desert kingdom. To keep her throne, Hatshepsut strategically mixed aspects of masculine, feminine, animal, and divine power. The lingering sillage of Radical Hopelessness mimics Hatshepsut’s lasting legacy—records of her brilliance survived despite a posthumous erasure campaign meant to discourage future female kings.
BEYOND SKIN: DARK, FLESHY BASE NOTES OF SUEDE AND MYRRH ARE COMPLEMENTED BY AN EARTHY, HERBAL CORE OF INDOLE AND ROSE, WHILE SPICY, ANIMALISTIC TOP NOTES OF CIVET, CUMIN, AND CLOVES ARE SET OFF BY A HINT OF RED SEAWEED.
Looking to the future, Beyond Skin, is based on a hypothetical artificial intelligence entity. The fragrance imagines a machine that holds the individual and collective history of every woman in a single, composite scent. Not limited to a simple partnership of human and machine, Beyond Skin embraces untamed animal and vegetable characteristics to form a fully hybridized olfactory experience.
Each scent flacon is sold in a limited edition Anicka Yi sculptural bottle (1/333)
10ml Eau de parfum
