She wears her spirit as a dress - Paper Couture and Portraiture

About

Stephanie Smart's collection of Paper Couture balances on the boundary of fine art and fashion. It presents a unique vision of the possibilities of paper. Upon this background Smart displays an intricate use of imagery and text. Smart sees people as layered, collated, collaged and constructed works of art. She is interested in capturing: memories; thoughts; feelings; ideas/imaginings; spirituality and religious faith in material form. Smart documents these ephemeral qualities as visual narratives of the type she believes we all wear as collages around ourselves. In this exhibition she is focusing intricately and specifically on some of the attributes and stereotypes of being embodied as a woman. The two specific series of paper garments in this show are titled the ‘Bloody Women!' series and the ‘Beautiful Woman?' series. The first examines both the known and hidden attributes of the female cycle and includes consideration of society's attitude at large to women in this regard. The latter looks at both personal and generalized ideas of surface beauty and inner disquiet. A symbolic interaction of the inner and outer world lies also at the heart of her Portraiture which is extremely delicate and unusual. Smart prefers to work wholly in pencil and achieves a subtle, semi-translucent quality of line. Most of the works on show here are life-sized or larger, the largest coming in at about 8 and a half foot high. Smart has both a BA in Decorative Art and an MA in Cosmology and philosophical thought. She understands the role of the artist in terms of 'visual philosophy' and her practise as an artist has always been concerned with relating to the individual human being as if they were a cosmos in miniature, contextualized amidst the macrocosm of the world at large. Smart has worked also in glass and mixed media. She has held four previous residency positions, won many private and public commissions/competitions and exhibited widely. Sponsored by: www.greatart.co.uk; www.seawhite.co.uk; www.daggettgalleries.com