John Smith
b. 1952, Walthamstow, London
Lives and works in London, UK
Flag Mountain, 2010, 8 mins.
John Smith is a film-maker whose work draws upon everyday life as its raw material. Smith's meticulously crafted films rework and transform reality, playfully exploring and exposing the language of cinema. Initially inspired by conceptual art and the structural materialist ideas that dominated British artists’ filmmaking in the 1970s, but equally fascinated by the immersive power of narrative and the spoken word, Smith has produced a body of work that subverts the perceived boundaries between documentary and fiction, representation and abstraction. Adrian Danks says: “Smith explores the cracks within the world he confronts everyday, taking a closer look at and often transforming things like a pane of glass, a mouldy ceiling, a hospital water tower. In the process, he makes us look more closely at our own surroundings, the everyday world that engulfs us but that we probably routinely dismiss as a suitable subject for contemplation, art and imagination.”
John Smith studied film at the Royal College of Art. He teaches part-time at the University of East London where he is Professor of Fine Art. He is represented by Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin. Since 1972 John Smith has made over fifty film, video and installation works. Recent solo shows and projects include ‘Horizon’, Turner Contemporary, Margate (2012), ‘Bildstörung’, Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover (2012), ‘Worst Case Scenario’, Weserburg Museum of Modern Art, Bremen (2012) and ‘unusual Red cardigan, PEER, London (2011).
Chekhov's Gun
Links :
www.johnsmithfilms.com
