Dane Mitchell

Respiratory Event (Vapor Whale) is a literal attempt to vaporise a sperm whale—in which the fragrance of the whale is dissipated over the cityscape from a rooftop.

​

From formal air-duct-like vents, a hybridised aroma made by the artist is vaporised continuously throughout the exhibition. The fragrance is a combination of synthetic ambergris and natural/actual ambergris produced in the belly of a sperm whale.

​

Alongside the two petroleum-colored air ducts rests a replica life-size sperm whale skull—still in its transportation crate—produced in mainland China by a company specialising in the production of replica skeletons for museum displays.

​

The work reveals a bleak truth: the distance between synthetic and natural is collapsing. Whales have become 'sentient toxic events'—declared as such due to the exorbitant amount of pollutants they consume in a lifetime. In this sense, the replica and the whale alike are creatures of late capitalism, and, like the fragrance, entangle our synthetic and natural worlds.