This project explores cycles of time and negotiations of power where I consider the geological, the mythological, and the historical. These narratives resonate as collapsed history in a reframing of deep time, folklore, and Spanish colonization through this single product, the 19th century cologne, Florida Water. Wildly popular as a “toilet water,” the scent was originally marketed for its numerous uses among which is its purported healing potential. In the present day, the cologne is prescribed for cleansing rituals in native Caribbean belief systems, particularly Espiritismo and Voodoo. At its core, the name “Florida Water,” bases its efficacy as a magical elixir from a fountain that propelled Ponce de Leon to colonize the oldest settlement in the New World. Myth, as a non-existent and innocuous justification, led to the colonization of Florida by the Spanish Crown.

Substantiating this myth is the desire to be forever young. At a $5 a bottle price point, I consider the sales of the cologne through a QVC style video infommercial. My set installation is the sun-bleached blue-green of the cologne combined with geological “strata” displays that constitute pedestal details. The combination of sales-driven language and a museological-style display further underscores the ironic juxtaposition between the cologne's marketed benefits and its historical baggage.

As a visual research component, I collected original advertisements from the 1880s-1940s in the form of trade cards. The slippage between their marketing rhetoric and the cologne's actual uses in religious rituals sheds light on the complex cultural appropriation and reinterpretation that have shaped its significance over time. I created a digital archive with these cards and other ephemera that references colonial and touristic implications of the founding of Florida (2020-present). The creation of a digital archive ensures the preservation of these historical materials and facilitates further research and critical engagement. By combining ephemera related to colonialism and tourism, the archive invites viewers to reexamine the founding of Florida and its enduring colonial legacies.