8/19/2023 0 Comments Image smith photography![]() The verbal responses were then transcribed, the text laser cut, and the individual letters encased in resin to create a large negative that is then printed, similar to a photogram. The questions asked in the interview were not designed to garner information regarding his incarceration but more ontological to collect ideas and personal philosophies. After Shahidul was imprisoned by the Bangladeshi government in 2018 his movements, speech and correspondence were monitored, resulting in a self-censorship that mirrors the process of stuttering. ![]() – CIRCLE AND SETTLE | PHOTO 2022The content of the photographs emerged from an interview with Bangladeshi photojournalist and activist Dr Shahidul Alam. The individual letters (the building blocks of language) combine together to form a representation of a life that exists only through the formulation of language." These installations explore how meaning and identity are generated through language. In other works the letters are also glued directly onto the wall of the gallery to form recognizable but featureless figures. I am interested in exploring spaces of meaning that are created when two or more narrative devices are blended. It is through this collision of narrative and languages that unique interpretations of personal experience are built. When viewing the visual and textual oscillation between the two narrative devices that have no literal connection we find balance outside the picture frame in a new discursive space. We can’t fully view the image because of the text and we can’t read the text without the image creating a constant back and forth between the two. The text punctures the surface of the image disrupting the way we view and read the work. The removed letters from the image are collected and captured by the picture frame, sitting at the bottom of each image like fallen leaves creating an Autumnal scene where visible change has occurred and the picture and the figure are going through a transition. I write personal stories then hand-cut the text out of the image. The text and the images have no literal relationship and I am very careful to avoid any obvious connection between the two. Therefore it is no surprise that my art practice is primarily about language and the modes of representation used to express and interpret personal experience.Īmong the studio methodologies that I employ are the combination of traditional story telling writing with vernacular photography. My inability to express myself during this time left an indelible mark on my personal history and has provided the impetus for my artistic enquiries. My teenage years were spent watching and observing, as I was too embarrassed to speak. "I grew up in the bayside suburbs of Brisbane, Australia with a speech impediment. Smith's work is held in the collections of Artbank, the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, University of Queensland Art Museum, the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) and Monash City Gallery, and in corporate and private collections in Australia, Hong Kong, France and the USA. His work has also been included in the major exhibition, Primavera at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney (2007). In 2014, he was included in the Dong Gang International Photo Festival in Korea. Martin Smith’s works have been exhibited both in Australia and internationally.
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