Press Information
Kate Smith is interested in the way we surround ourselves with objects through which we then understand ourselves: the way objects stand in for us: the way we become objects ourselves.
Drawing on a background of hybridised and customised objects, Smith will present a sculpture which creates a synthesis of two machines, a motorbike and a video-camera. The pared-down presence of the futuristic machine hovers between object and image, illuminated only by the motorbike’s own lights and a bank of monitors replaying the repeated attempts made by a video camera to record the bike being pushed through increasingly faster speeds.
The video image continually threatens to disintegrate; the colour ‘falling out’, definition eroding and form warping - the duration of the video footage reflecting the length of time the camera managed to remain functioning, the whole piece oscillating between perfection and collapse.
Occupying a separate area of the gallery space, a large projected image plays on this deterioration inherent in the amateur video footage Smith draws upon. In the projection, both the circumstances of its showing and the subject the camera focuses on erode the image, the machine depicted apparently under controlled yet terminal pressure.

This exhibition has been generously supported by The Elephant Trust and The Henry Moore Foundation


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Biography
Selected Solo Exhibitions 2006 Currently Under Development MOCA, London 1997 Imagine there are no limits, Matt's Gallery, London 1993 Matt's Gallery, London 1990 Shadow-Box, Matt's Gallery, London 1987 Smoke Trail/Smoke Screen, Matt's Gallery, London Selected Solo Exhibitions 2006-2003 Member of Programme Group, Waygood Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne 2003 Wheeling, Cell, London; Family Business, pitzhanger, Manor Gallery, London; Videowineart & Dorgicsewineart, Pantlika Wine House, Budapest, Hungary; Dorgicsebormuveszet, Muscarnok, Kunsthalle, Budapest, Hungary; Chockerfuckingblocked, Jeffrey Charles Gallery, London; Critical Home Video, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Contemporary Art Museum, new Plymouth, New Zealand 2002 Critical Home Video, Artspace, Ontario, Canada; Waygood Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne; 2001 Tenable, Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance. Selected from Arts Council Collection; Insider Trading, Mandeville Hotel, London 2000 Living with the Dutch; include me out***, Space, London; 1999 Mutant, Gallery 11, Gradford; 54/54/54, Financial Times Building, London; Still Life, Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield; Physical Evidence, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge toured to Djanogly Art Gallery, University of Nottingham Arts Centre; 1998 Backspace, Matt's Gallery, London; Post Neo-Amateurism, Chisenhale Gallery, London; Llathyard, Ffotogallery, Cardiff, work in gallery, posters on bus shelters 1997 Lost Art, CCA, Glasgow 1996 Discreet Charm, Visionfest 1995 Exotic Excursions, inIVA, London 1994 Diverse Memories, Pitt Rivers MusEuropa '94, four sites across Munich 1993 Hotel des Voyageurs, Hotel d'Angleterre, Lamballe, France and Les Voyageurs, Galerie de Chai, Saint-Brieuc, France; A Discourse On The Emotions, Galerie Volker Diehl, Berlin 1992 The Phonebox, telephone boxes in Soho, London and Liverpool; Summer Lightening, Wise Taylor Partnership; Brit Art, Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland 1991 City Racing, London; Louder Than Words, Cornerhouse, Manchester 1990 Drawings by Four Artists, Mario Flecha Gallery, London; 1988 The Invisible Man, Goldsmith Gallery, London

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