Holy Smoke

Religious art from four continents and across cultures – seeing and smelling the sacred.

Holy Smoke: Censers Across Cultures investigates the practice of incense – the use of material objects to communicate with the divine – in religious context as it has been used in cultures worldwide across historical periods, religions, and cultures.

The fragrant smoke of incense filling the air can be witnessed in any tradition, whether polytheistic or monotheistic, whether in the Ancient Near East, or Medieval Europe. Censers are ubiquitous among religious paraphernalia, and on a truly global scale. Focusing on case studies not only places the censer in a constellation of other religious artefacts, but also relocates the importance of rituals that have long been placed at the margins of the study of religion, art and ritual. Emerging from this, we hope, is a better grasp of the role of sensorial elements in the fostering of the devotional practices of world religions.