Kirsty Smith
email } kirstyjosmithh@gmail.com instagram } smithjkirsty
Kirsty Smith is a Visual Artist based in Shetland. She has completed a BA in Fine Art at the University of Highlands and Islands. Recently she has been awarded the Patron Prize from the Royal Scottish Academy for her sculpture and drawing. Her practice examines change, time and place.
correspondences
2023
Works inspired by Tim Ingold's Correspondences, shown at art spot korin, Kyoto.
Drawn together from across Scotland, the work of these artists shares a striking resonance that holds critical value for our times. Informed by scientific method and enquiry, and concerned with environmental issues, this group works across film, installation, photography, print, sculpture, and textiles. Initially brought together by Lateral Lab, a cultural trust that supports contemporary creative responses to the environment through an ecocentric spirit of exploration and international collaboration, the group now showcases recent projects, with connection and ecologies as central themes.
hydroite
2023
The following works were exhibited at RSA New Contemporaries 17th March - 16th April 2023
The work is grounded in the notion of watery futures and the changing relations between us, the environment, and water and developed with close observation of burns, lochs, bogs and sea, and successive experimentation with glass, stone, metal and wood. The materials used are repurposed, with stone sourced from industrial and infrastructure sites around the isles. Sculpture and drawing use the forms of fluid dynamics to intertwine primitive ruins and the new reality of hyper-connectivity, pipelines, new energy and deep-sea cables. The work seeks to look at the surrounding environment to visualise a realistic future for the isles on the cusp of global warming and the threatening change of the gulf stream.
grounded
2022
The collection of work depicts the relationship between everyday life and the surrounding land, focusing on the consistent detachment and transformation. The topological study focuses on the ground, exploring the self within the realities hidden beneath. Sculptures, objects and drawings are created from a practical and observed engagement with the environment and working material.
Kirsty's work challenges the audience to move closer and imagine the parts of the work that are not seen - to understand the inner world within, to look past the smooth veneer and recognise the underlying reality
inhabited space
2021
The work is engrossed in the environment I live in, portraying the social context of landscape explored within the medium of drawing, object making, sculpture and installation. I examine the tension of rural land as inhabited and scattald, along with the reliance of the contradicting sides. I re-approach our influence on the land within the absurdities of contemporary life, promoting a caring attitude to the wider notion of home.
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multiplisea
2019
The work is a continuation of exploration with the Scottish landscape, developed by the realization that place is an experience perceived by the viewer. The film uses the visual metaphor of the sea to portray the powerful feeling of community in rural areas; as a projection, this creates a more immersive experience and a connection with the audience and space.
The seascape was shot in various areas around the west coast of Shetland. The assembled footage was first shown in the university, where participants could interact with the projected image. the waves engulfed and danced around the space and body.