Georgia Munnik
Complementing her broader interest in olfactory sense perception, PHENOTYPE 13 is Georgia Munnik’s debut commercial black tea and cannabis perfume.
On first contact, the perfume exudes a peppery almost citrus earthiness, which references the zestiness of a cannabis bud absolute. The initial impression is held down by a black tea accord of natural leathery, tobacco and gourmand flavours together with hypnotic, woody patchouli. As it settles, the sweet hay-like aroma from Oud Assam reveals itself. Gently ushered by a rich amber accord, the perfume dries down into a white musk, which can be characterised as a velvet-soft jasmine that lingers on the skin.
Each 30ml perfume vessel is presented as an artwork, sculpted with encapsulating resin and adorned with ethically sourced natural specimens. Giant moth wings, blue ink-stained crabs, and moulding rose petals are gold-gilded and frozen in time using plastic lamination and resin techniques. The perfume sculpture is an ode to the natural ecology of the Western Cape.
– Georgia Munnik
b.1990, Johannesburg
Georgia Munnik is a visual artist, published writer and self-taught perfumer. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions and attended artist residencies in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Russia, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland. Her commissioned projects include two light art sculptures, How do you mourn? (2021) and Orpheus (2023), produced for Spier Light Art Exhibition, Stellenbosch. In 2022, Munnik was a featured artist at Proto, the store at A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town. She was also the recipient of the Rupert Museum Social Impacts Art Award Residency, which supported an enquiry into her long-term interest in perfumery. Munnik has since developed a senses-based methodology for her PhD project at Stellenbosch University Visual Arts Department and a commercial perfume practice. She recently launched her first eau de parfum, PHENOTYPE 13, at AKJP in Cape Town. Her solo presentation with Rupert Museum, Stellenbosch, will take place in mid-2025, for which she will present a series of limited-edition sculptural perfumes.
