Babs Smith
Signs of Life, Perspex domes, found masonry and light, 47cm x 50cm 2019
Flat Instance, Mirabel Studios Manchester October 2020
Signs of life, began when I explored the remains of a demolished house close to where I live. I discovered twisted masonry and steel reinforcement, fragments of painted floor and door handles, each imbued with a tangible presence and connection to the generations of the people who lived there. This work explores the transience and flux of the juxtapositions of flesh to metal and concrete, love and safety to the vacuum and violence of the demolition.
Perspex domes etched and moulded create a new narrative in the form of a scientific graph demonstrating time as it wraps around the object, Galileo’s quote on the circle as a metaphor for the continuity of life and tears etched into the Perspex that transpose on to the wall expressing a human element displayed on a cold hard surface.
Everything is energy and it cannot be destroyed, this exhibition attempts to describe the palpable space between a fragile human existence and the violence of destruction.
https://cottononmcr.com/2020/09/28/flat-instance-exhibition-review/