The Smell of Calpol on a Warm Summer's Night

Scarlett Carlos Clarke
The Smell of Calpol on a Warm Summer's Night

Photographs: Scarlett Carlos Clarke

Text: Nathalie Olah

Publisher: MOREL BOOKS

24 pages

Pictures: 8

Year: 2024

Price: 55 €

Comments: Sewn paper softcover, 360 x 280 mm, landscape format, colors photographs, design by MORËL, Scarlett Carlos Clarke and Esme Whitehead, calligraphy by Valentina Casali, with an exclusive text written by Nathalie Olah, edition of 300, book signed by the photographer.

I see a grotesque heightened version of normality, which magnifies and elevates the mundane,” observes Clarke of the worlds presented in her debut exhibition. They feel safe and warm in their familiarity yet at the same time suffocating.

The large-scale tableaus are evocative of windows onto domestic worlds. An apt analogy given Clarke conceived of the idea in 2017 while staring into strangers’ windows along the seafront as she pushed her newborn son’s pram. They engender a visceral feeling tied to the experience of domesticity. That simultaneous sense of comfort and claustrophobia, which can intensify after becoming a parent. I never intended the series to be autobiographical.