Sleeper

High pressure weed sprayer, glass, flora, perfume of Chinese Violet (Asystasia gangetica), aroma diffuser, timer.
2019


Sleeper is a scent based work utilising speculative fiction to imagine what Australia will smell like in 100 years-time after the effects of climate change have permanently altered the landscape. Creating and dissipating a perfume made from a known NSW sleeper weed, the Chinese Violet, Sleeper asks; How does art interact with us biologically? And how might climate change cause upheavals in our sensorial landscape?

Sleeper weeds are introduced plants that appear benign for years, infesting only very small areas of the landscape. What causes sleeper weeds to rapidly proliferate and infest very large proportions of the landscape are the effects of climate change. These effects include; increased temperatures and moisture in the air, intensified wet and dry periods, and lack of competition as native species die off, unable to compete with the introduced species or changing climate conditions. In centuries to come, sleeper weeds which are currently benign in the Australian landscape will have rapidly spread and multiplied due to the effects of climate change, altering not only what the Australian landscape looks like, but also how it smells. Altering how we experience the landscape sensorially.

One species of sleeper weed is the Chinese Violet, scientific name Asystasia Gangetica. This weed is currently only concentrated around the Port Stephens area of NSW and has been recommended by the Australian Government for immediate eradication due to the potential threat it poses to agriculture and Australian flora if it were to spread. Initially a shrubby, spindly herd of about 1 metre in height, this weed has the capacity to form great mats of vegetation. It grows small fragrant white flowers, characterised by a purple marking on the lower petal that flower in late summer.

During late January of 2019 I took a trip to Port Stephens to walk through the bush and collect the flowers of the Chinese Violet. I found them growing under eucalypts, between banksias and along grassy residential gutters. I have then made a perfume from the flowers. It smells floral, pungent, leafy and is contradictorily pleasant, despite this smell signifying the spread of an aggressive plant to the detriment of native flora and the agricultural industry.

Displayed in a high-pressure industrial weed pesticide sprayer, this perfume slowly seeps out into the environment it is exhibited in. First barely detectable, then pungent, and finally unnoticeable and forgotten as audience members acclimatise to it, this perfume is an allegory for both the potential effects of climate change, and our attitudes towards them.

Presented at PACT Salon 'Slurp' for March Dance curated by Mikaela Stafford and Carla Zimber.