Unity: 3 Sisters 3 Kings
Unity: 3 Sisters 3 Kings extends the installation 3 Sisters, 3 Kings into an olfactory dimension, inviting visitors to inhabit abstraction with their whole sensory being.
The work is rooted in Castor Bay, Tāmaki Makaurau, the cliffs beneath the former maternity unit where Sewell was born. Soil from this site was crafted into dorodango spheres and inspired the scent composition: Vetiver, Myrrh, Galbanum, Juniper berries, and Laurel leaf. Earthy and resinous depths meet bright, aromatic top notes, creating a fragrance of renewal, cohesion, and ritual resonance.
Exhibited as part of Abstraxt Abstraxt at NorthART, a group show of women working in abstraction, the location carried deep personal significance: Sewell spent her early childhood nearby in Northcote, where her parents built their first home. The exhibition also aligned with the night sky — Orion’s Belt visible due west, with Betelgeuse overhead. One evening, the artist could look up to see the star while also viewing her Betelgeuse XR sculpture from the gallery courtyard — a moment where earth, memory, and cosmos converged.
In the gallery, Unity became an invisible thread connecting sculpture, sound, and sky — a fragrance that could be breathed as both memory and constellation.
Catalogue Text
Unity: 3 Sisters 3 Kings (olfactory component of the installation 3 Sisters, 3 Kings) was created at the intersection of personal history and celestial resonance.
The inspiration began at Castor Bay, Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), on the cliffs beneath the former maternity unit where Sewell was born. Earth gathered from this site was hand-shaped into dorodango spheres, grounding the installation in material and biographical memory. This soil extended into the olfactory realm: Unity was composed from Vetiver, Myrrh, Galbanum, Juniper berries, and Laurel leaf — a fusion of earthy and resinous depths with bright, aromatic top notes, crafted to suggest renewal and cohesion.
Exhibited as part of Abstraxt Abstraxt at NorthART, the show highlighted female artists working in abstraction. The gallery’s location in Northcote, where Sewell spent her earliest years in her parents’ first home, made this exhibition especially resonant. The work was further enriched by its celestial counterpart: during the exhibition, the constellation of Orion stood due west in the night sky. On one evening, the artist could see Betelgeuse overhead while simultaneously viewing her Betelgeuse XR sculpture in the gallery courtyard — a convergence of earth, memory, and sky.
Within the installation, Unity threaded together:
Cyanotypes (evoking celestial bodies)
Dorodango spheres (soil from Castor Bay)
Sound (Orion’s Anthem, NASA Voyager recordings)
XR sculpture (Luminary II XR: Betelgeuse)
Scent (Unity, permeating the space)
Together these elements created a sensory threshold where the material and immaterial, the earthly and the cosmic, the personal and the universal could meet. Unity in particular invited visitors to breathe the work — an unseen bridge between soil, stars, and self.
