Craig Smith - A Foolish Harmony

01.04.23
Solo Exhibition at
Kalashnikovv Gallery,
Johannesburg

Exhibition Statement

I took the opportunity to be away from the familiar, to explore all the threads in my practice, and research the foundations for my upcoming solo show during a six-month studio residency at Ateljéföreningen Enkehuset in Stockholm, Sweden.

It allowed me to dig deeper into current thinking that we are drifting away from the ability to focus as a society, due to the constant and shallow attention used to engage the world through our devices.

I have been exploring this lack of deep engagement in my artistic research and practice as a painter and have always been intrigued by the meditative quality of material and how it can lead us into our internal landscape, or what I call our ‘innerverse’. If anything, I have strived in my work to offer the viewer the surface as a portal. 

I want to present the viewer with an opportunity, a moment to re-engage with depth of self where focus and contemplation are rediscovered. A place where we can silence the constant chatter of the continuous scroll and the shallow dive into our screen.

The work is a path away from the visual pollution of modern connectivity into something engaged with being human; the silence and wonder of self-discovery while sliding across the surface of the material that includes works of art. 

By avoiding being led by the conclusive narrative and guided rather by ambiguous marks and scratches, the odd visual anchor lets your imagination or mind come to rest. 

This helps your own imagination gather threads from your memory and innerverse or inner landscape while looking outwardly in a more engaged and grounded context.