The Smelling Ghost

In the pantheon of Yoruba deities, the Smelling Ghost is a destructive, frightening force who emits a terrible odor that obstructs health and life. Twins depicts the ghost with a twisted mouth, hollow eyes, and imbalanced projections sprouting from its oversized head. He drew the forms from his own dreams and from the memory of elaborate and scary masks he saw in ritual contexts as a child. But according to Yoruba tradition, evil is just as necessary as good; opposing forces almost always coexist, balancing each other in perpetual negotiation.

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