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2016

 

SmokescreensArt Basel Miami Beach

 

Miami, United States

Smokescreen Coil #1, 2016

Copper, aerosol diffuser, Aerosol spray, strap

530mm x 820mm x 915mm (approx)

Courtesy RaebervonStenglin, Zurich

Smokescreen Coil #2, 2016

Copper, aerosol diffuser, Aerosol spray, strap

530mm x 820mm x 915mm (approx)

Courtesy RaebervonStenglin, Zurich

Smokescreen Coil #3, 2016

Copper, aerosol diffuser, Aerosol spray, strap

530mm x 820mm x 915mm (approx)

Courtesy RaebervonStenglin, Zurich

Trans-species miscommunication vacated can (apple), 2016

Aerosol spray, aerosol container, steel clamp, brass, glass, cork

300mm x 300mm x 220mm (approx)

Courtesy RaebervonStenglin, Zurich

Trans-species Miscommunication Vacated Can (corn), 2016

Aerosol spray, aerosol container, steel clamp, brass, glass, cork

300mm x 300mm x 220mm (approx)

Courtesy RaebervonStenglin, Zurich

Trans-species Miscommunication Vacated Can (acorn), 2016

Aerosol spray, aerosol container, steel clamp, brass, glass, cork

300mm x 300mm x 220mm (approx)

Courtesy RaebervonStenglin, Zurich

This new series of works by Dane Mitchell makes use of scent delivery devices used by hunters and trappers to disguise human scent – limiting presence in order to hunt and trap prey. Developed for the hunting industry to cloak the human body and eschew bodily trace, here these devices are brought indoors. Utilising their built-in strapping mechanism, they face inwards rather than outwards to hold sheet copper in near-cylindrical form: the deodoriser sprayed on the cylinder's interior.

The copper forms evoke formal sculptural objects – self-sanitising through the application of a cloaking scent. These olfactory tools conceal and deny the human; refusing any trace. These scents – or non-scents – refute the human; they try to negate our presence entirely. At the same time, in masking our scent, they reach across the human-animal threshold and seek trans-species (mis)communication through camouflage. Although the intention of the scent is to 'outsmart' prey, it does so through an attempt to speak the sensory language of the prey.

Three wall-based sculptures each comprised of a round glass flask sitting atop an aerosol canister held to the wall by clamps, the contents of the aerosol having been decanted into the flask. Where the floor-based works use cloaking fragrances, each wall work deploys a different hunting fragrance – apple, corn and acorn.

Dane Mitchell ©  2026

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