Molly Smith: Hours

About

In the spring of 2013, Molly Smith and her partner moved to 31 acres in rural Western Massachusetts and began to build a house out of materials sourced from the land itself. Left without a studio while simultaneously constructing the new homestead and dismantling a previously existing structure, Smith’s home and life within its natural environment became the site, process, and materials from which the works in this exhibition were formed. 

The show’s title, Hours, is a homophone referring to both ownership and time. In a series of 365 watercolors made daily throughout her first year of living on the property, Smith considers the impossibility of claiming time through its measurement, all the while marking its passing. Each work is based on Smith’s ideas about value and worth, endurance and cycles, and resources and possession. 

Using materials that include found objects, natural materials and waste, Smith responds to observations gleaned from her surroundings. Some are ephemeral and others more permanent, acknowledging that existence must encompass both growth and disintegration. For instance, canvas used as temporary winter insulation becomes the substrate for fugitive dyes, which alter gradually over time. In another work, Chord, dried iris leaves bind together a sculpture that may degrade and disappear.