Author Description

Radiant Matter I/II/III was a series of exhibitions by Dane Mitchell presented at three public galleries across New Zealand in 2011. Each exhibition operated in an autonomous way but shared similar aesthetic, conceptual and material concerns. Radiant Matter I at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth involved the sculptural possibilities of perfume and atmospheric vapours in their various states of transformation and the means of containing, diffusing and releasing these into the air. Radiant Matter II at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery extended these concerns - working with witchcraft, glass vessels blown through the playing of musical instruments and the spoken word, obsidian, and a hand-engineered perfume produced with French nose Michel Roudnitska. Radiant Matter III at Auckland's Artspace continued his exploration into perfume and the 'vaporous', the state of suspension or in-between poetic potential of liquids, gases and solids by again working with Michel Roudnitska to develop a synthetic scent of 'The Smell of an Empty Space' to continue his exploration of ideas and substances in transitional states which hover at the edge of perception, physicality, affect and time. This publication brings together these three bodies of work, anchoring them in research begun whilst the artist was a guest of the Berliner Künstlerprogramm DAAD in 2009 and further explored in textstexts by Cay Sophie Rabinowtiz, Chris Sharp, Aaron Kreisler, Dane Mitchell and foreword by Ariane Beyn.