Artist Profile
Damia Smith
Rocket Grant (2014-2015)
Statement of Work
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I create artwork which allows the viewer to come to a new level of understanding and elicits an emotional reaction. I want the audience to become an integral component in my work by actually interacting or imagining themselves interacting with the piece. After this experience, they have a new perspective on how something else exists in the world. Artists carry the burden of educating the public and creating awareness of social injustices and other issues.
The combinations of lacy, organic forms, cursive writing, and tagging on city walls create new hybrid forms. In creating a juxtaposition between urban art forms, provocative words and dainty, feminine lines, I am exploring the expectations and traditional imagery associated with woman in relation to my own surroundings and current events. My newest work explores ornamentation, feminism, gender role expectations, gentrification, and consumerism.
The series of diamond rings acts as commentary on the absurdity of wedding culture and expectations associated with marriage and weddings. The desire to own as much clothing as possible results in the discarded, donated clothing finding its way to third world countries and disrupting the local economies. One of the pieces is fabricated from old bridesmaid’s dresses, another from clay, and another cast in iron.
Adorning inanimate objects with jewelry allows an awareness of how society personifies certain objects while dehumanizing entire groups of people. Giving the objects a piece of jewelry made to scale is a way of calling attention to its non-human circumstances, yet questioning what makes someone or something seem human. Graffiti, street art and yarnbombing all influence the designs and locations of these sculptures.
Jewelry has very finely created details through intricate processes such as filigree and stone setting. Preserving these details in a larger sculpture makes the viewer question what they see. Altering the scale of jewelry to make it into a contemplative object rather than one worn on a body provides commentary on the ideas of craft and function as part of a work of art. Changing the materials and processes to create a similar, but altered object creates a new dialogue. Jewelry has many associations and functions such as adornment, status, and protection.
All of my work involves a relationship between the viewer/wearer/ participant and a specific object or piece of artwork. I am extremely interested in human interactions and their relationships with other humans and objects. Both art and performances can convey ideas and emotions; I want to use these forms of communication to help people become more aware of their own feelings, attitudes and surroundings. This reinforces the importance of art as a social agent, which helps the public to expand its worldview, by allowing the viewers to see themselves inside of the artwork.