Aimee Smith

Currently in Taiwan carrying out a 2 month artist residency at Taipei Artist Village, (thanks to City of Perth and their ‘sister-city’ relationship with Taipei). I’m falling in love with this city more and more every day. So much life and joy. So much to see and do…its hard to find the time to actually make work!

The Project….

During my residency here I started by redefining a kind of ‘artist statement’ to better define what I do and why I do it, in the hope to refine and gather together my energies back to what really interests me and what really drives me as an artist. This is what I came up with.

‘I am inspired by the capacity of art to make sense of the world around us and the capacity of imagination to dream up the future. I hope, in some small way, that my art practice can contribute to the transformation of our world.’ -Aimee Smith 2011

For several years now my practice has been focused on the capacity of art to address issues of our time, and this has often been an act of criticism and commentary, in the hope to incite conversation around these issues. But recently I’ve been sensing a growing un-ease amongst people around me, and a feeling that many of us already understand and have concern for these issues BUT we are stuck on the action. What do we do about it? How do we act on these feelings? This had brought me this new artist statement that recognises the potential and need to have new visions for the future, and a way to transform and act on these visions. Can an artist do this? Can my art practice operate in this way?

During my residency at Taipei Artist Village I will be negotiating and navigating my way through how this statement physically manifests in my practice. How do I make work that is able to be transformative and a vision for the future, at a time when we so desperately need one?

There is a Chinese proverb; “The beginning of wisdom is calling things by their right names”. I have a feeling this may be a good place to start….