- Venue
- Erasmus Darwin House
- Starts
- Saturday, July 31, 2010
- Ends
- Monday, August 23, 2010
- Address
- Beacon Street Lichfield Staffordshire WS13 7AD
- Location
- West Midlands
Inventions of the Mind is an exhibition which attempts to form a bridge between the ideas of contemporary artist Kirsty E. Smith, and the life and work of one of Britain’s most important historical thinkers, Erasmus Darwin, linchpin of The Lunar Society. The works attempt to question our physical relationship to our surroundings, as well as how our memories and experiences might be affected by these. Smith’s conjunction of the old and new, the ordinary and luxurious, the cheap and expensive, all contribute to a rich and complex body of work. Her sculptures are vessels which hold and suggest many ideas simultaneously. They are saturated with history and with narrative, in both a personal and more general sense. Smith’s use of the obscure and familiar in equal measure serves to create a feeling of the uncanny, reinforced by their unexpected location and comical titles. Like the mannequins positioned in Erasmus Darwin House, it is quite possible to believe that Smith’s sculptures have an unseen life of their own.
