Artist Index

Coming - Homeland Security

an exhibition by Kerry Smith, curated by Narmada Smith

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