Dennis Doyle

Acrid tears over another charred dinner, 2021

Site specific installation in kitchen with charred meat scented candle, curated counter top, and two homemade cube air purifiers.

Indoor air pollution as a material and site for ecological reflection is continued in my early experiments in cooking range toxins. Acrid tears over another charred dinner is a site specific installation exploring the tension of exposure and mediated protection with smoke lung irritants produced when burning food. Cheap hot dogs and buns are burnt over a stovetop then seeped in hot wax and oils to extract their scents. The resulting candle is poured into a saucepot and placed on a curated countertop in a kitchen. As a viewer smells the burning candle, their experience is flanked by two homemade air purifiers, constructed out of HVAC materials and box fans. The humming and shaking cubes stand as sentinels to mediate the experience with the toxic candle. Here the kitchen and home are probed as a site for intimate ecological discussions on pollution and how to exist in a toxic world.