Planning is just so hard these days but I still want to look ahead to at least some time when I am actually better, so I am really pleased to now be part of the White Noise projects collective and hope to be part of their next show in 2019.
Managed to get out into the autumn sunshine the other day.
At an event recently I was asked if I was making work about my experience of bowel cancer “or was I not that kind of artist”? I mumbled something very vague and said whatever I was going through would probably come out in the work anyway….
Hmm, not sure really what kind of artist I am. I keep rewriting statements and then also trying to work out where the making stuff sits and then think it is all making anyway and maybe the kind of artist I am doesn’t come from me but from the work and then I worry it is not all joined up and then I worry whether it matters anyway. So the recent short statement is “I am inspired by gardens, interested in exploring my English/Chinese heritage and I love working with paper”. Does that cover it?
Currently making Christmas cards…..and guess it fits with the above
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.
