Amanda Smith
17 February - 15 March 2024
This is the life that was attempts to make sense of life and the world of Amanda Smith; recognising private trauma and public chaos co-exist. Memory and time play a significant part in exploration, the unrealistic longing for times now gone and for times ahead.
These works are all trying to make sense of life and the world, post-graduation, easing to post-covid, recognizing private trauma and public chaos co-exist.
I was raised in a conservative culture that prided itself on a ‘do-it-yourself’ approach to life. We were an Irish Catholic, middle-class, small-town doctor’s family in Aotearoa/ New Zealand. That defined us, and thus defined me.
My work tells stories – sometimes just a word, other times a more abstract illustration. Works are handmade to emphasise the passing of time, slow- cooked. The colour palette is muted. The sepia tones connote nostalgia. The background to each is alluded to in the title. Memory and time play a significant part in my exploration of the world – unrealistic longing for times now gone, for times ahead, and rebuilding an understanding of community where there is none.
I celebrate the mundane, the tasks that kept us from cold, and hunger, and harm. I incorporate methods (sewing, knitting, embroidery) and materials (fabric, wool, thread) historically associated with domestic spaces. With these traditionally decorative media as my drawing tools, I hint at the unseen menaces that lie below the surface of home and family. When the viewer interacts with my work, they can lean in close and absorb the wairua imbued in each piece. They can submerge in my memories, accept the emotion that might be triggered, or just speculate about the narrative I am telling.
My work celebrates the pleasure of making.
Guided tour with Amanda
Saturday 24 February, 2-3pm
Join us for a tea or coffee and meet the artist Amanda Smith as she leads you through her exhibition This is the life that was to reveal the personal stories that have inspired each work.
A moment of your life, please
Saturday 2 March, 11am-2pm
In this workshop you will work with writer Holly Walker to create some short personal narratives telling stories of your life. In the second part of the workshop, you’ll work with visual artist Amanda Smith to reduce this story down to its basic parts, a ‘title’, from which to make abstract or simplified images. Places are limited so bookings essential. To book please e-mail: artscentre@wcc.govt.nz
