Download here the Visitor's guide. - Les Ateliers de Rennes
Download here the Visitor's guide. - Les Ateliers de Rennes
Download here the Visitor's guide. - Les Ateliers de Rennes
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
70<br />
<strong>Les</strong> Prairies's artists<br />
MICHAEL E. SMITH<br />
Trouble stand, 2011. Courtesy of <strong>the</strong> artist and galery KOW, Berlin. Photography : Alexan<strong>de</strong>r Koch.<br />
Detroit born artist Michael E. Smith's work is not what you could call optimistic. It has<br />
a resolutely post-apocalyptic slant, evoking human fragments, urban catastrophes,<br />
unrecognizable <strong>de</strong>tritus and <strong>the</strong> consequences of dark events. He has a penchant for<br />
unusual industrial materials like plastics, car seats, foam and textiles, and a predilection<br />
for techniques like grilling or melting that might seem more suited to testing products<br />
to <strong>the</strong> limit ra<strong>the</strong>r than artistic creation. But it is exactly this kind of experiment<br />
bor<strong>de</strong>ring on psychopathy that <strong>de</strong>fines his activities. Smith carefully places his works<br />
in unconventional places (at <strong>the</strong> foot of a wall, on <strong>the</strong> ceiling, or in corners). <strong>the</strong> albeit<br />
Spartan installation of <strong>the</strong> works is as important as <strong>the</strong> works <strong>the</strong>mselves. The overall<br />
dramatic effect is un<strong>de</strong>niable and belies <strong>the</strong> economy of means. But all this melancholy<br />
and drama does not affect his incomparable humour. His vision of <strong>the</strong> world is so grim<br />
and serious that it would be impossible to laugh at it and yet <strong>the</strong> tragedy and <strong>the</strong><br />
apocalyptic anxiety of it all come across as much too harsh and intense for it not to carry<br />
within itself its own, necessary catharsis<br />
C. S. tr. J.H.<br />
Born in 1977 in Detroit (United States) w<strong>here</strong> he lives and works.<br />
Production<br />
<strong>Les</strong> <strong>Ateliers</strong> <strong>de</strong> <strong>Rennes</strong> 2012.