I have been back in the studio a couple of times now and am continuing with the postcard/monoprint collages. I know my work can be a bit inconsistent as I am always on the move, exploring processes in a restless kind of way. One constant though, I think, is an attempt to tie in my present state of mind with personal history in a way that is not too obvious. This is another small piece. I feel I need to go bigger – perhaps a sculptural collage at some stage soon…
I have now finished the antiviral tablets and hope that I will soon have my pre-shingles energy back. I’ve started going out – gentle dog walking – and feel the cold a little less! I have been developing the small Chinese Zodiac pieces – they are unashamedly decorative, fun to do and really all I’ve been feeling up to. This looks huge but is only 18x13cms.
My family always celebrates Chinese New Year and next year is the year of the rooster starting on 28 January.
I am now recovering from a relatively mild bout of shingles – thankfully! I think I got to the doctor’s just in time to get the anti-virals. The advice I got was to rest, which I have done my best to do, emerging from 4 days at home, which felt more like 4 weeks, to turn up at the Landscape:Islands event hosted by Dover Arts Development. I wasn’t quite myself but was very glad to be there to experience the wonderful sound piece by Joseph Young. I also enjoyed the ceramics by Kay Aplin and the documentary brought back memories of slip casting when I did ceramics many many years ago now.
I am not very good at resting so have been keeping myself busy making some small craft-like pieces based on the Chinese Zodiac signs
and preparing some new hand-made Christmas cards. The glue is still wet on this one and it isn’t quite finished.
Sometimes in my anxiety to make work, share it and think about it I forget how important it is to acknowledge the importance of having fun and the social aspect of art-making. I acknowledge it as key in my work with Dover Arts Development – we always said we’d stop if it was no longer enjoyable – but sometimes I forget this in the context of my own practice. Private views are important in that respect – the conversations I have in the context of the work being shown are ones I wouldn’t have otherwise, and important even if it means having to go back when it’s quieter to see the work again.
In that vein, the artists’ breakfast as part of SALT 2016 in Folkestone was both fun and essential. Keeping connected with each other just helps.
I have just finished a couple of small collage pieces incorporating images cut from postcards. I think they are quite successful and in line with the way I work – which is to experiment and play with stuff first and then think about what might be going on – I think the work may be about getting away, emotionally and intellectually. Possibly this is my response to the turmoil of Brexit and the sense of fear and instability it is provoking.
Clare Smith's mixed English/Chinese heritage informs her perspective on issues of identity and categorisation. Her nomadic childhood and early adulthood have meant a somewhat ambivalent relationship to place, reinforced by the sense of ambiguity that comes from her mixed identity. Smith works with drawing, print media, collage and moving image to investigate this ambivalence, with references to craft, the importance of labour and the handmade. Through her choice of materials and approaches, she creates work which attempts to create a sense of unity, an interpretation of Homi Bhabha's "Third Space" - seen as a space in which different parts can come together to challenge dominant ideas of wholeness. Collaboration is part of Smith’s practice and she is also co-founder of Dover Arts Development (DAD) together with painter, Joanna Jones. This involves working with many different artists, curation, organisation, event management, creating networks across East Kent and influencing the public realm in Dover. Clare works from a studio in Dover. She has an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins and has exhibited nationally and internationally.
