Sean Raspet. Residuals (2014).

Gallery air. sealed in a canister. sprayed back on the wall.

In November 2014 Sean Raspet placed a sealed stainless steel canister inside Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco. The canister initially held a vacuum. Over seven days, surrounding air flowed in, slowly filling the volume. By week's end, the canister was full.

The air inside was sent for molecular analysis. A laboratory counted every compound, by ratio and concentration. Raspet condensed those findings into a liquid mixture many thousand times more concentrated than the original ambient scent. The liquid was micro-encapsulated into a scratch and sniff emulsion and spray coated on the gallery walls.

Visitors arrived, scratched the wall, and smelled the air of the very space they were standing in. The background scent of the room, which no one had noticed, became a specific object. Paint, cleaning solvent, construction material. Before, it was air. After condensation, it was scent.

On the walls, five glass containers held reconstituted versions of crude oil, rebuilt molecule by molecule. Four gas cylinders released nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and carbon dioxide in atmospheric ratio. A negative air machine in one corner filtered stray odors and re-concentrated the background scent into a cleaning solvent, used at the end of the show to return the walls to their original surface.

Residuals is not about symbol. It is about matter: what remains after subtraction. Air is a thing. Background scent is a thing. Crude oil is a thing. Raspet lets them appear, at the molecular concentration of their own being.