Kirsty E Smith
Sheffield
What makes my world go round? Art, Architecture, people & laughter. My work has been described as having a disarming sense of playfulness & humour. Sculpture, film and photography.
We live in a constant dialogue between memory and our experiences of the present. Kirsty E Smith’s practice draws on a passion for architecture and the optimism of Futurism.
As humans we have a fundamental need to make sense of the world and our place in it. Our experiences come into the brain in a vast flow of neural impulses from the eye, the ear, the tongue, skin and so on. Smith’s intention is to create work which resonates on a deeply emotive level and which acts as a vehicle to reconnect with a ‘place’ or memory deep in our subconscious. Frillip Moolog is the name that she has given to such a place.
Kirsty E Smith works at the hinge of different worlds: between that of vintage Sci-Fi and the domestic and everyday, and there is a disarming sense of playfulness in what she makes.
She works with an eclectic range of materials to fabricate her strangely anthropomorphic sculptures: they are vessels that hold and suggest many ideas simultaneously, being rich with history and narrative, both in a personal and more general sense.
Through photography, the beings are sometimes set within specific landscapes, such that there is a strong sense of procession, pageantry and folklore. In her video meanwhile, incongruous sound bites are intended to surprise, entertain and layer meaning, drawing the viewer into her idiosyncratic 'alternative' world.
AWARDS and RESIDENCIES
2016
Arts Council England Grants for the Arts Award
2014-2015 AA2A Residency at Sheffield College, UK
2012 Wirksworth Festival: Curated Programmme Commission
2010-2011 AA2A Residency at Coventry University, UK
2009
Arts Council England Grants for the Arts Award
2008
UK Trade and Industry Travel Grant for research trip to Chicago, USA
Best 3D Art, West Midlands Open, UK
Shortlisted Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, UK
2007
Metro Boulot-Dodo Award, Leicester Open, Leicester, UK
People's Favourite (3D) Award Staffordshire Open, UK
Finalist RSA Trefor Campbell Award for Enterprise.
COLLECTIONS
Private collection: A.Bühler, Switzerland
Private collection: S. Hankins, Spain
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017
DeepSpaceMoolog, Testbed1, Druid St, London
2016
Space Moolog, 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe, UK
2011
Frillip Moolog: Another Place, The Public, West Bromwich, UK.
2010
Blink UnBlink : S.Q.U.A.T. Liverpool (curated by Gregory Scott Gurner and Asher Remy-Toledo) Liverpool Biennial UK.
Inventions of the Mind, Erasmus Darwin House, Lichfield, UK
2009
Close Encounters of a Frillip Moolog Kind, Westbourne Grove Church Artspace, London, UK.
Close Encounters of a Frillip Moolog Kind, Solihull Arts Centre, Solihull, UK.
The Yin and Yang of Frillip Moolog, South Bank Art Centre, Bedford, UK.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 Talking Sense, Portico Library, Manchester, UK
2019 Otherworldly II, Millfield Sculpture Trail, Atkinson Gallery, Somerset, UK
2018 Otherworldly, Burghley Sculpture Gardens, Stamford, UK
2017
Unique Beauty, Cupola Gallery, Sheffield, UK
Warriors, Persistence Works, Sheffield UK
Drawing for Sculpture, 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe UK
2016
Bloc Assembly, Bloc Projects, Sheffield UK
2014-15 Case of Curio, FBI Worksop, Surface Gallery Nottingham and x-church Gainsborough, UK
2014
The Interlude, Exchange Rates, New York USA. (Frank Bobbins Institute) curated by Sluce.
Cheap Thrills Film Festival, Sheffield and Loughborough, UK
2013
Wells Art Contemporary, Wells, UK
Python Art Festival, Gallery at St George's House, Bolton, UK
Modern Friction, Mirror Gallery, South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell, UK
Cabinets of Curiosity and Room of Wonder, Borough Museum and Art Gallery, Newcastle Under Lyme, UK
2012
The Uncanny, Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk, UK
Something Stolen, (curated by Will Alsop) Testbed1, London UK
Wirksworth Festival: Curated Programme, Wirksworth UK
At Play, (curated by Outi Remes and Cally Trench) New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham, UK
The Open West, Gloucester Cathedral , Gloucester, UK
2011
Nottingham Castle Open, Nottingham UK.
Kirkland's New Empire Bioscope, Wolverhampton, UK
Rarities, Costal Currents Festival, Hastings UK
2010
Away Pitch, Staffordshire Cultural Olympiad Project.UK
I am The Warrior (curated by Juneau Projects) Derby, UK.
Worcester Open 2010, Pitt Studios, Worcester, UK.
Meleager's Garland, (curated by Anneka French) Sir Joseph Banks' Conservatory, Lincoln, UK.
2009
Weekend Suppliment; Ania Bas project, The New Art Gallery Walsall, UK.
Ornament is Crime, MIMA,Middlesborough, UK.
Crossings, New Brewery Arts, Cirencester, UK.
2008
Wirksworth Festival Windows, Wirksworth, UK.
Ensemble, Hand and Heart Gallery, Nottingham, UK.
Open West Midlands, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, UK.
Future/Past, Erewash Museum,Ilkeston, UK.
Knit Knot Teapot,The Old Sweet Shop Gallery, London, UK.
Visual :Arts & Business, Birmingham, UK.
1st Waterside Open, Sale, UK.
2007
19th Open Exhibition, City Gallery, Leicester, UK.
Staffordshire Open Studios, Lichfield Cathedral, Lichfield, UK.
Month of Sundays, Resonance FM, Corsica Studios, London, UK.
Stroud House Gallery, Stroud, UK.
Birmingham Open, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, UK.
VISITING TUTOR EXPERIENCE
2016
Visiting Tutor Fine Art Foundation Course, John Leggott College, Scunthorpe
2010
Foundation Course (3D) Manchester Metropolitan University
2009
Foundation Course (Fine Art) Solihull College
Foundation Course Bedford College
EDUCATION
2018
PGCE Sheffield Hallam University, UK
2006
BA (Hons) 1st Class Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2016 A Transmission from Deep Space Moolog Essay by Joanne Lee
2012 Lurking with Intent: A short essay on the sculptural practice of Kirsty E. Smith by Anneka French Conjunction Magazine: Waiting
2010 Inventions of the Mind: Erasmus Darwin House, Lichfield, UK. Exhibition essay by Anneka French
2009 Close encounters of a Frillip Moolog Kind a-n exhibition review by Becky Evers
2008 The Secret Life of Sculpture. Essay by Matt Price.
VIDEO
Deep Space Moolog (7mins) 2016
https://vimeo.com/182225335
About deep Space Moolog: interview with Kirsty E Smith (6mins) 2016
https://vimeo.com/200430822
My Life in a Box (2 mins) 2014
http://bit.ly/29qQWhL
Casey and Kirsty (5mins) 2014
https://vimeo.com/98288266
Trolley Happenings (3mins) 2010
http://bit.ly/18UvM1X
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