Nick Smith
NICK SMITH
VISUAL ARTS
In my work I investigate the significance of sites or objects to either history or of personal interest. As an artist I work predominantly in photography and in moving image - writing and curation also play important roles. Central to my practice is a concern with subjectivity; relics or fragments that have lost their place in a chain of events; the subject is strangely displaced, the absence suggesting the impossibility of representation. I try to document these sites in a way to transform ‘given interpretations’ and make us re-think the relationship between looking and interpreting.
MONUMENTAL MANTRA
As an on-going body of work I have been developing a series of photographic images of sites where public artworks have been removed or stolen called Monumental Mantra. The works depict what seem to be unmarked reliquaries that suggest a site or event of some importance, the title of each piece is the title of the artwork that once lay at the site. The Henry Moore sculpture was removed for fear that it would be vandalised or stolen. This event led me to investigate and document similar sites. Lynne Chadwick: The Watchers was stolen from the grounds of Roehampton University, London and Tracy Emin: Roman Standard (diptych), was stolen and then returned to its’ plynth outside a Mausoleum in the grounds of the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool. In this application I have included four works and one installation shots.
UKYA PROJECTS:
National Biennale: Derby 2010