Thanks to our sponsors at Accessible Arts NSW in partnership with Bundanon Trust I have the opportunity to develop 'Waters of Life - Stories of the Shoalhaven River' my photo media project in the beautiful Bundanon surrounds sharing the experience with four other wonderful artists see more at ABC News report.
Thanks to our sponsors at Accessible Arts NSW in partnership with Bundanon Trust I have the opportunity to develop 'Waters of Life - Stories of the Shoalhaven River' my photo media project in the beautiful Bundanon surrounds sharing the experience with four other wonderful artists see more at ABC News report.
'Today I, Tomorrow You' exhibition at Nishi Gallery
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My photo-media art was featured in a group exhibition at Nishi Gallery curated by Chloe Mandryk. "Today I, Tomorrow You” celebrates the 10th anniversary of Art, Not Apart Canberra Festival of Art. The show opened with a media launch on Thursday 5th March 2020 at 17 Kendall Lane, Acton Canberra. Each artist responded with distinct ideas and unique mediums united by a preoccupation with our environment and the contemporary and future impact of climate change. The show included Encounters with Self and Other (above), a new iteration of my earlier installation shown at Sydney College of the Arts Gallery and Maitland Regional Art Gallery. Concerning water, it intimates that we are not separate from the non-human world as not only do we share the same environment but our bodies consist of over 60% water. In the driest continent on Earth access to fresh water is the most basic of human and non-human rights and this can no longer be ignored.
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Water and fire are two sides of the same coin and in a world out of balance our future is interlinked with all other species. This show also included my Dark Sublime (above right and below), which challenges our perception of man-made permanence with a photograph recording incoming water as it refracts the metal steps of Clovelly Bay. While in Burnt Sun (above left), a macro view of sunlight diffracting through the antique glass of my studio window pane is obscured by a smoky sky, photographed during the build-up to Australia’s worst bushfire season. Both are dye sublimated photographs on archival Chromaluxe aluminium 102 cm diameter circles, custom printed by award winning Print2Metal studio in Melbourne. |
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| Dark Sublime detail, documentation courtesy Martin Ollman |
Curatorial Lab 2019 exhibition Defiant Acts at Sydney College of the Arts and Nurture at Verge Gallery
Theorist Karen Barad writes about the entanglement of all matter and the interconnectedness of the visible and invisible, human and non-human worlds which is also explored in my video Lucent Encounters (seen below at Defiant Acts group show). This makes visible the materiality of sunlight seen through the liminal space of my studio window pane as it transforms itself in a process of disintegration and re-emergence. It is an emotional cri de coeur to not let the sun go down on our community heritage and commons as our remaining days at SCA campus come to an end.
Nurture also part of Curatorial Lab 2019 from October 17 - 29th was a group exhibition at Verge Gallery with Danika Knežević, Jacqueline Larcombe, Rosie Thomas, Simon Cooper, Sabella D’Souza, Simon Baré, Tamara Voninski, Bernadette Smith and Suzy Faiz. My work in the Verge show seen below emphasises the need for a greater awareness of the non-human world by exploring the possibility of identification as an engaged subject. Using a macro lens I have photographed sunlight rays scattering within my studio window pane in the former Callan Park asylum.
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| Curatorial Lab Nurture exhibition (detail seen above) continues concurrently at Verge Gallery until 30th October. These light phenomena prompt us to consider a less anthropocentric view of the universe and a nurturing emphasis on the non-human to counteract the spectre of human induced climate crisis. Encounters with Self and Other (below) part of Defiant Acts exhibition at Sydney College of the Arts gallery is a sculptural installation that invites viewers to support water sustainability as an act of defiance and survival. |
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Disorder Gallery presents Translucent Interactions
a solo show by Bernadette Smith
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| Above: 'The Space Between' and 'Interactions' photographic print on alupanel |
CONCERNING PEACE group exhibition at Maitland Regional Art Gallery
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| Detail of Deluge from Concerning Peace |
Deluge exhibited in the Concerning Peace group exhibition at Maitland Regional Art Gallery in August/November 2018 serves as a metaphor for climate crisis and threats to global peace inviting the viewer to contemplate the need for water sustainability. Australia’s recent scandals in the Murray Darling Basin involving water security and conflicts between states around distribution remind us that we live in the driest continent on Earth and this can no longer be ignored. Drought in the Middle East for example has led to war and destabilisation while low lying Pacific islands are becoming uninhabitable due to rising sea levels.
Three person exhibition with Simone Darcy and Isobel Markus-Dunworth at Perth Centre of Photography held in June 2018. In my work the phenomenon of water and glass refractions has been photographed then transposed onto different objects such as fabric, aluminium circles and large floor cushion to form provisional assemblages within the gallery (left side). This exhibition stretches the boundaries of photography through explorations of light and objects in real space.
Droplets outdoor installation at Eden Gardens until March 2019
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| detail droplets installation courtesy Marta Ferracin |
ElectroFringe17
Below: my installation at ElectroFringe17 showing digitally recorded scattered rays of sunlight projected through vintage glass of various refractive indices.  | |
| The water and glass refractions are animated and re-projected through translucent materials using a data projector. In this zone of uncertainty light bounces around liminal spaces transforming itself in a process of disintegration and re-emergence. |
Beams Festival 2016
Above: Waterline video loop highlighting coal pollution in Sydney catchments and imagery of water overlaid on walls and pavement over 30,000 visitors pass through semi-immersive projections that create a perception of morphing reality to visualise climate change at Beams Arts Festival 2016.
'Vanishing Shore' at Wollongong Arts Precinct 2015
Beams Festival 2016
Above: Waterline video loop highlighting coal pollution in Sydney catchments and imagery of water overlaid on walls and pavement over 30,000 visitors pass through semi-immersive projections that create a perception of morphing reality to visualise climate change at Beams Arts Festival 2016.
'Vanishing Shore' at Wollongong Arts Precinct 2015
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| Interactions (on the left) photo assemblage featured in Sydney College of the Arts Showcase at Verge Gallery, University of Sydney. |
Experimental photographs shown at Four Walls photography exhibition
Newtown Art Seat in Sydney commissioned by Marrickville Council
Experimental photographs shown at Four Walls photography exhibition
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Newtown Art Seat in Sydney commissioned by Marrickville Council
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Art on the Greenway installation detail by Bernadette Smith part of Leichardt Open Studio Trail 2015
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Outdoor Projects
Sculpture at Bayside Arts Festival
Harbour Sculpture Prize
Art Crawl at University of Sydney
Sculpture at Bayside Arts Festival
Harbour Sculpture Prize
Art Crawl at University of Sydney
ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
2020 Master of Fine Arts by Research at Sydney College of the Arts.
2007 Multimedia Certificate IV Hunter Street TAFE, Newcastle.
1989 Master of Fine Arts by coursework, film major at San Francisco Art Institute, USA
1984 Graduate Diploma Professional Art Studies, City Art Institute, now UNSW Sydney
1981 Bachelor of Education in Art, University of Newcastle, Australia.
PUBLICATIONS
Historical Materialism 2018 Sydney Conference Paper "Commodification of the Commons - the Coming Privatisation of Public Recreation Assets"
"A Speculative Field Guide to Blackwattle Bay" Sustaining the Seas Conference publication 2017
"Visceral Art and Political Voids" in Rochford Street Review January 2016
Interview in ARTS ZINE march 2016
"Radical Newcastle" published by New South press chapters 'The Star Hotel Riot and its Legacy' and 'A Hidden History of Stockton Bight'
Australian Art Responses to the GFC" Arena Magazine No. 132 Oct/Nov 2014
COLLECTIONS
ARCO Experimental Cinema Library, Madrid, Spain.
Kodak Photography Collection, Sydney,
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France.
Fotogalerie Kommunale Friedrichshain, Berlin.
State Library of New South Wales, Mitchell Archive, Australia.
Australian National Film Archive.
view full curriculum vitae here
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