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Dane Mitchell presents part three of Radiant Matter at Artspace, continuing his exploration into perfume and the 'vaporous', the state of suspension or in-between poetic potential of liquids, gases and solids. For this work he has collaborated with renowned French perfume maker Michel Roudnitska to develop a synthetic scent of 'the smell of an empty space'.

The first part, Radiant Matter I, at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth involved the sculptural possibilities of perfume and vapours in their various states of transformation, and the means of containing, diffusing and releasing these into the air. For Radiant Matter II at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Mitchell extends these concerns - working with witchcraft, glass vessels, obsidian, and a hand-engineered perfume.

Dane Mitchell is one of New Zealand's most prominent artists on the international circuit, he recently completed the coveted DAAD Fellowship in Berlin, his work was featured in the 2010 Busan Biennale and the 2011 Singapore Biennale.

Opening Saturday 2 July, 1-6pm.

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This Saturday at 3pm Richards Francis will respond to The Smell of an Empty Space by Dane Mitchell. The performance will be a 60 min set where people will be able to move freely around the space.

The experience of sound and olfactory sense of smell both share a vibrational medium. Richard explains further:

In this way the title 'Familiars' references the recollection of emotionally charged memories that scent generates in my mind. On another level a familiar is an attendant entity (often in animal form) believed to assist cunning folk in their practice of magic. For the past 3 years I've been researching acoustic qualities of ancient archeological ritual sites and ritual music. So for me this title ties together these two areas of interest: scent and it's power to influence the mind, sound and it's place in ritual and operation in ritual spaces.

He will use a range of sonic practices including recordings of empty interior spaces (rooms, hallways, stairwells). These recordings, rather than sounding empty, feature more the 'phantom sounds' from outside the recording space that drift in from adjoining rooms, through air vents and windows. And lastly hell be generating live textures from idiophones (dry seed pods, paper).

Richard Francis (b. 1977) is an Auckland based sound artist. He uses recordings of acoustic and electronic sounds, a tone generator, modular synthesizer and computer to compose and improvise sound works. He has released solo and collaborative albums on a number of labels including Korm Plastics (NL), Monochrome Vision (RU), Scarcelight (USA), Last Visible Dog (USA) and his own record label CMR (NZ).

For more info: www.richardfrancis.net.nz

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