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What does labor smell like? Visitors found out at the Jan. 11 opening of "Labor" at the Burchfield Penney Art Center.

Visitors pass by a description of the exhibition.

Paul Vanouse (center, arms raised) talks about his project.

As the bacteria digest simple sugars and fats, they create the distinct smells associated with human exertion, stress and anxiety. The scents combine in the central chamber, in which a sweatshop icon — the white T-shirt — is infused as scents disseminate.

A young boy takes a sniff at the central chamber. The odor is expected to grow stronger over the course of the exhibition.

The exhibit also features a series of monoprints of T-shirts worn by volunteers as they performed physical activity. The shirts were infused with a dark substance to highlight perspiration and then put on a press to make a print.

Each fermenter incubates a unique species of human skin bacteria responsible for the primary scent of sweat: Staphylococcus epidermis, Coryne and Propionibacterium.

The 80-gallon fermenters are cradled by temperature-regulating units and motorized mixers connected by hoses to gas, nutrient and waste canisters.

Paul Vanouse poses in front another of the T-shirt monoprints.

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Labor

The scent of human exertion under stressful conditions is created at the Burchfield Penney Art Center by Paul Vanouse, award-winning UB art professor and director of Coalesce: Center for Biological Art. "Labor" is on view through March 31. Photos: Douglas Levere

Published January 14, 2019

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