Bloc Billboard: Marie Smith
5 October 2023 - 4 March 2024
Free & Open to All
The Body In Space, 2023. Image courtesy of the artist.
We are pleased to present The Body in Space by Marie Smith, an audio-visual piece selected from our Bloc Members’ Billboard Commission open call. Come visit the piece any time of day outside our gallery on Eyre Lane.
This piece reflects on the artist’s engagement with landscape and the body in space. Elements of this work were collected during a residency in Spain, where Marie explored a very different landscape on their own. The experiences of dryness and gravel contrasted greatly to the textures of British landscapes, provoking questions about their body in space: what is one’s relationship with nature? How does one’s identity shift when no-one is there to provide any acknowledgement? Using collaged analogue photography and a recording of a solitary Marie walking (and stumbling), The Body in Space performs the complicated work of introspection and of (not) coming to terms with one’s self.
Marie Smith (she/they) is a visual artist and writer born, living and working in London. Being a neurodivergent person with dyspraxia and anxiety has informed how they navigate the world. Marie’s practice incorporates digital and analogue photography alongside text as a form of visual language that addresses identity, nature, sustainability, mental health, and well-being. She utilises low-toxic plant, food, or herb-based developers to process their analogue film. Due to this methodology not being transferable to developing colour film, the artist now only works with black and white and camera-less film processes. Marie is an Associate Lecturer at Kingston University London and has previously lectured at Goldsmiths, University of London, and London College of Communication.