plasti-pileus by agustine zegers

odorous molecules | 50mL | Edition of 1

part of the artist's continued engagement with speculative scenarios of climate disasters in olfactive form; consists of three materials

artist statement:

plasti-pileus is part of a continued engagement with speculative scenarios of climate disasters in olfactive form. it exists within the context of our geologic period of the Anthropocene and the layered (and currently unfolding) apocalypses that compose it: the sixth mass extinction event, the colonial apocalypse of 1492, and the covid-19 pandemic.

as such, this piece engages with Tobias Menely’s concept of “Anthropocene Air,” speculating how our smellscapes will evolve in response to shifting ecologies and a scarcity of the materials and sources of nourishment we have considered necessary in a contemporaneity defined by extractive excess. in an acknowledgement of this scarcity and as an invitation to engage with raw materials in a restrained and unadulterated way, this composition contains only three materials.

plasti-pileus is the smell of a speculative new species of fungi that has developed from its polymer-degrading ancestor, Aspergillus tubingensis. This new fungus is not only able to digest plastics but has also been altered by them to the point of developing a polymeric scent, becoming one with plasticity itself.