For all inquiries: ajs.beba@gmail.com
Amanda Smith tells a new/old story, out loud and between the lines, in the languages she grew up with – fabric, yarn, thread - as drawing tools. Her work celebrates the pleasure of making. Memory signifies in her exploration of the world – longing for times now gone, for times ahead, reclaiming and rebuilding an understanding of community where there is none. Measuring time is a source of comfort, a re-imaging or re-imagining.
Growing up in Aotearoa/New Zealand during the 1960s and 70s, life was slow, hand-made, homemade and safe in a predictable small town way. Life as a social worker, office manager, florist, and lady-in-waiting filled her middle years. She moved to New York at the end of 2015, to speak the same language in a completely different culture.
Amanda explores small elements that contribute to presenting ourselves to the world, holding ourselves together, covering things up, absorbing the negative, blanketing us in comfort. She uses the materials of her childhood – cloth, thread, paint, wool – to narrate her stories, to mitigate the terror of finding place in a new world.
Amanda received her MFA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts, New York. She is currently living and working in Brooklyn, New York.
Photo Credit: Erik Washington (@erik.washington)