SMITH développe une poétique para-scientifique qui éprouve la porosité de la frontière entre imaginaire et rationalité
For her second solo show at the galerie Les filles du calvaire, SMITH (Dorothée Smith) introduces “Spectrographies” and “TRAUM”, their two last projects that further explore plastic identity and distress in relationships with others. The artist has created an hybrid environment –all at once laboratory, projection room, archive library and portrait gallery- in which she develops a para-scientific poetics that draws on the thin line separating rationality from imagination.
Going forward with their investigation of Catherine Malabou’s conceptual philosophy, SMITH tackles the metamorphosis of oneself –a central theme in their work- from the angle of “destructive plasticity”. Through the representation of ghostly and fantasmatic figures, as well as post-traumatic transformations, they capture negative and hollow subjectivation processes intertwined with self-effacement and self-image issues. Accounting for creative destruction, SMITH’s works invite viewers to be immersed in a dark and diffuse atmosphere, which is characteristic of their auratic and ethereal style, and conducive to daydream and meditation.