Clay Smith
Großbritannien
http://www.claysmith.co.uk
Kunstart: Fotografie
Technik: Farbfotografie
Stil: Minimal / Konzeptkunst
Vita / Lebenslauf:
1974.
I was born Andrew Neil Smith, under the sign of Aries. In Hull, England. I am the middle child, the black sheep of the family.
I grew up with the feeling that I was bringing myself up, by wandering by myself through the alleyways and ten foots, kicking the stones and trying to figure out why nothing seems to happen.
1979.
Started school.
My mother was told by one of my so called teachers that I was backward. She walked out, worried and angry.
A strange time for me at school. At an early age I was the kid that could see ghosts. Women dressed in ball gowns, floating portraits of Victorian noblemen, been touched and ran passed by them, the sounds of moving furniture in the assembly hall. All of which happened within one particular school. This same school had canes to whip and one particular teacher that got a kick out of touching 11 year old girls, another teacher enjoyed throwing 11 year old boys around the classroom.
Iv always been the kid that didn't quite fit in. I was never really into music or football but thoughts/day dreaming, images were the thing for me, academically I was stupid. To be at school, I could never figure out the reason behind it, I just didn't understand. I felt that I was taught nothing but what the teachers thought I should be taught, because they were taught the same things when they were young. At the same time, I felt that the teachers had lost something about themselves, they didn't seem to be themselves anymore, they didn't care. I felt bad about this.
1993.
Started University. Began to suffer from clinical anxiety. Left University.
Semi trained in Interior Design, I decided from this day to learn to be an artist! I immediately felt a lot better. I began to paint, and convinced myself that painting was the only form of art of any value. This idea made my anxiety almost vanish, what a relief! I could at last be by myself, producing, working. Almost.
From then on I painted and painted, some I sold to book publishers, some I exhibited in surrounding galleries, others I just lost. Thinking I could travel as an artist, my head became full to the brim with romantic ideas of living. The truth was that my anxiety just wouldn't let me go, and I found it very hard to get jobs, and to get on with life.
2001.
Left Hull, moved to Derby.
Got a job. I became a postman! I am still there to this day!! Christ!!!
I am spending my time using photography and paint as mixed media. And I am beginning to get to grips with what it is I am supposed to do with art. With my life. I now feel as I should, okay. I now understand that exhibiting in the local gallery is NOT the way forward for me, but I may keep doing this. My task now?, is to find where my work is best suited, I am still a little lost; when I get there Ill let you know...
My current work attempts to expose and externalize the inner human struggle, portraying this at both the individual level, and the global.
Aktivitäten / Ausstellungen:
‘The Self-Fulfilling Prophets’ is an ongoing project. ‘The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the original false conception come 'true'. This specious validity of the self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuates a reign of error. For the prophet will cite the actual course of events as proof that he was right from the very beginning.’ (Quote: Robert K Merton. The Social Theory and Social Structure).In other words, a belief, acted out as truth when it is actually false, may sufficiently influence people, either through fear or logical confusion, so that their reactions ultimately fulfill the once-false prophecy. This can be directed towards most people, but on a smaller scale. My work can be thought of as something that can be the result of this ‘prophecy’. My WW2 works can be said to be the evidence of persons that could be seen as extreme examples of ‘the self-fulfilling prophecy’. Creating deconstruction on a world scale, through fear and skewed, polarized
beliefs. My work on the WW2 images was to capture and freeze the image within two images, to lay or bend a part of history on top of another. Not to lose it’s meaning through art, but to juxtapose two spaces that have been devastated through war, and are from two different areas of the affected world. Thus giving both sides their identical truth. Enemies are at one with each other, it is ‘the Prophet’ that makes them fight.My work deals mainly with the notion that we are all incomplete somehow; that we are all trying to ‘solve’ life’s little mysteries and problems. I am surely trying this out for myself, but on an artistic level, and somewhat on a narcissistic one too. I am truly finding myself whilst trying to keep afloat within the art world. Though I am neither successful nor rich due to my ambition as an artist, I am finding solidity and a re-birth of kinds. You could say that I am a ‘conceptual’ artist who is finding ways to deepen it’s meaning. I am searching for something that is going to give me great reason to be here, to be an artist.My work ‘Tattoo’ is just that, my re-birth, my vision coming into it’s own. For ‘Tattoo’ is quite simply, a metaphysical portrait.
There is a warring factor here, and also something quite tribal and theatrical. A play to which only I am the actor, very much alone, and extremely worried about the uncertainty of my life. My one great question is this, ‘what is the meaning of art?’ Of course there are books to read, and images to look at, but I have my own soul and heart, my worries and dreams. Before I extract what art means to me, I am first finding out the true meaning of myself, as an artist. My current work attempts to expose and externalize the inner human struggle, portraying this at both the individual level, and the global.
Exhibitions and Happenings:
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, 2007.
Nottingham Castle Art Gallery, 2007.
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, 2006.
Nottingham Castle Art Gallery, 2006.
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, 2005.
Performance Art in Shining Cliff Woods, 2005. (I traveled naked through the woods carrying a large piece of splintered wood on my shoulder that resembled a horses head. This piece of wood had come from a tree that had been struck by lightning. The only recording of this was by the on looking walkers rambling in the woods at that time, in which they will never forget!).
Performance Art in Shining Cliff Woods, 2005. (I repeatedly jumped naked from a tree into moss. The only recording of this was made by my assistant, who took numerous photographs using medium format camera, that intentionally had no film in it).
Derby Yellow Book Art Gallery, 2004.
Hull City Council of Culture - One man show, 1997.
Green Room Book Cafe, Hull, 1997.
Cottingham Art of Africa Gallery, 1995.
Hull Ferens Art Gallery, 1995.
European Traveling Student Print Exhibition, 1994.
Beverley Art Gallery, 1993.
Leeds Art and Interiors, 1992. (I sent several paintings to an interior designers office, and Iv never had them back!).
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'Artist in Character'
Fotografie
Farbfotografie
50 x 39 x 1 cm
2007
Preis: 3.500 Euro
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'Tattoo'
Fotografie
Farbfotografie
50 x 50 x 1 cm
2007
Preis: 4.000 Euro
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'The Temptation of Isis'
Fotografie
Großformat
123 x 123 x 1 cm
2007
Preis: 7.000 Euro
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'The Guilt of Isis'
Fotografie
Großformat
118 x 150 x 1 cm
2007
Preis: 7.000 Euro
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