FOR THE ANCESTORS
Scent is an experience that is both individual and deeply communal - unseeable, untouchable, but silently felt - a universal language that speaks to us all. Ancestor is rooted in learning, understanding and the cyclical nature of all things.
The rich history of incense provides a window into how interconnected we are as humans to each other and to the Earth - our oldest and wisest Ancestor.
Botanical incense is exactly that: whole flowers, herbs from my garden, foraged moss and fragrant barks, luxurious tree resins, or a handful of crushed spices.
These each begin in their raw form and are dried, ground, and hand-formed into new iterations.
For over 5 years, I have made incense by hand in my home in Southern Appalachia in occupied Tsalaguwetiyi.
I make medleys of materials used for centuries in incense, ritual and daily life. Sourced from the land around me and thoughtful cultivars around the globe, it is intentionally slow-made, in harmony with the seasons and the natural world, meant to be learned, burned and returned to the Earth.
For eons, humans from all over the world have used scent to connect and communicate. I take care to research both the history and modern life of every ingredient I use - with respect to the sacred wisdom contained inside each one, and the hope to preserve it. My work explores the power of scent as a communicator, a tool of resistance, and a portal to connection.
Olfactory language is innately understood. What memories, stories, and new understanding can be found in whispers of smoke?
Hello, I’m Morgan
葉 / YE / YIP / DIEP: “leaf” and “to be in harmony”
Like food, stories, customs and rituals - I believe scent can bring us all to homelands we may never know. .
My grandparents were boat people. They escaped post-war Vietnam with 5 children, my father included, in 1976 - just a year after the fall of Saigon. In the dead of night, they packed tight inside the bottom of a fishing boat with only the clothes on their back, a few small possessions and each other. On day 3 of their journey, the boat ran out of fuel, stranding them and dozens of other families for days on end in the middle of the Malaysian Sea. Amongst the panic and uncertainty of tomorrow, my Grandma silently reached into their small bag of food. She pulled out a single orange and carefully, calmly, began to peel. My father can still recall the scent of fresh orange amongst the breeze of the ocean, it was the best he’s ever tasted.
I started Ancestor in 2021 as a study of scent, story, and heritage. I am Chinese, Vietnamese, and my story is distinctly American. First daughter to first gen. Born to immigrant refugees. A child of the diaspora. After the passing of my grandparents, I mourned the knowledge and stories that I will never know and burned incense everyday at my altar, finding connection in the familiar scent of sandalwood. I began to reconnect to parts of my identity I’d buried for most of my life. I began to make incense as a medium to which I could process my feelings, my work is a physical manifestation of my own rootwork. Each box of Ancestor is embellished with 葉 - the Chinese character from which my family name was derived.