Opening event Friday 28 October 6-8pm
Open 11am - 5pm Fri - Sun 29 October - 13 November
Kerry Smith Homeland Security 2006-12, furniture and utilitarian objects, wool, blanket fabric installation view. Photo by David Lawrey |
The uncanny
is something that derives its terror not from something externally alien or unknown but on the contrary
something strongly familiar, which defeats our efforts to separate ourselves
from it Freud.
Kerry Smith (1951 - 2015) was
a notable Australian artist who explored the concepts of Security, Identity and
Social Behaviour. This exhibition Homeland Security will represent a cross section of her work, as
a tribute and celebration for her exceptional
artistic contribution. She exhibited in many exhibitions
including at UTS Gallery,
finalist Fishers Ghost Prize, finalist Wynne Prize and COFA Performance Space and
graduated from SCA and COFA Working in sculpture and installation,
Smith's work reveals a depth of
critical thinking and humour, something she used throughout her career. Her work is process and material driven, drawing
from memory she used common materials to inform her own narrative. Tactile and
highly charged, old plain, checked and patterned Australian made blankets are used
extensively in her work. She also used
other materials and processes such
as weaving and winding brightly coloured wool and string around carefully selected shaped
structures that were pertinent to
her message. She saw them as charged with memory and connection to home, she
questioned the paradox between the soothing effect of the medium, that is, its
potential to protect and the stifling effect of immobilising the underlying
structures. Her constructed language engages a contemporary formula to
illustrate her experiments in the alchemy of humour. In incorporating colour, and
unexpected, nonsensical constructs Smith informs the current social and
political debate.
Smith's installation, Homeland Security investigates the
perceived threat of terrorism in our
society. It explores the evocative feelings
associated with states of security and/or insecurity using the symbolism of
plain checked and patterned blankets made in the 60's. Gleaned from a suburban past they are
charged with memory and a connecting to home, the body, nurture, protection,
holidays, childhood, secrets, relationship, security and sanctuary. The fabric
being wool has a strong connection to Australian identity as Australia was
built on a sheep's back. The work investigates the tension between security and
insecurity in relation to our everyday lives and to the nation as a whole.
The surrealist and modernist undertones of the work and the
use of humour and oddity as a seductive camouflage are areas that demand
further explanation. Humour is a strong element in the work and seeing beyond
it's initial emotional pull of delight causes a jolt in the viewer to think about what is really going on and what
emotional manipulation is really about. .... "I would like to think that the humour finally
overrides because I am a strong believer in the empowerment of an ability to
laugh at the world' Kerry Smith