Dane Mitchell artworks and editions

Dane Mitchell is a contemporary artist from New Zealand.

In Mitchell’s art, conceptualism and mystic merge. In his working process the investigation of the visible and unvisible, of the material and non-material is fundamental. At the same time, it’s an attempt to visualize the intangible. His works are based on unconventional materials, like fragrances or humidifiers, as well as elements of the mystic such as spells or ghosts.

Mitchell’s artwork is inspired by scientific processes, ranging from bacteriology, anthropology, geology or parapsychology. Moreover, Mitchell studies alchemy, shamanism and witchcraft and cooperates with practitioners of the occult, such as shamans or stargazers. By applying principles and rituals of these fields, he not only plays with the expectations of the recipient, whose world is oriented to visible cause and effect. He wants to uncover mental processes and ways of thinking to turn the world of the observer upside down.

Especially the artist’s integration of perfume and other fragrances in his works is characteristic. He is interested in the sculptural possibilities of smells, which he regards as an already dissolved or decomposed object. Accordingly, smell is the only sculptural form that literally penetrates into the brain and can only emerge in the mind of the beholder, where it takes shape, explains Mitchell.