Claire Brooke

About the work:

Olfactory Drift

In the shape of a nerve system, a slow unravelling occurs: messages flow and fragment, mirroring the delicate structures of the human brain while exploring humanity’s relationship with progress. In September 2024, a study detected plastic in the olfactory bulbs of eight deceased humans, suggesting this pathway as an entry route into the brain. Of the particles and fibres identified, the most common was polypropylene—this plastic, derived from petroleum and natural gas in 1951, is now used widely in packaging, textiles, electronics and construction. Like neurotransmitters sending signals between brain synapses, this work ties blind ambition with biological consequences, as microplastics now slip and mingle among our cells, merging into memory and mind. In a chilling irony of industrial advancement, a product boldly engineered from natural materials has come full circle, now embedded in the structures of the brains that conceived it.

About the artist:

Claire Brooke is an emerging writer and visual artist living in Sydney, originally from Adelaide, with a background in design, textiles and arts sector work. Her interdisciplinary work draws on philosophy, data and personal archives to examine the messy contradictions of fractured capitalism, happily exploring the adverse symptoms of our post-modern times. With a love of horror, absurdism, girly nostalgia and mysterious towns, Claire has come to believe there is nothing scarier than the peculiar darkness of reality.