lichen-scented ice sculpture

Scents of Consumption (renlav) explores the olfactory relations between lichen, reindeer, ice and climate change. Some species of lichen are the primary winter food for reindeer. Reindeer can smell reindeer lichen (renlav) through the snow. However, more wet snow and unpredictable and frequent warming and freezing events resulting from climate change cause the lichen smells to be trapped in ice. Reindeer can no longer smell their food and they starve. Scents of Consumption (renlav) explores these relations by encasing reindeer lichen (renlav) in ice made from lichen-scented water. As the ice melts, the smell of lichen is released and the renlav is freed.This work is part of Volatile Ecologies, a transdisciplinary project which examines smell as interspecies communication and ecological memory.