Sable Elyse Smith. Blue is Ubiquitous and Forbidden

About

The title of this body of work, The Body Keeps the Score, comes from the book by Bessel van der kolk of the same name, which studies the corporeal manifestations of trauma and stress.

Through video, sculpture, images, and text, Smith utilizes the framework of self-portraiture to survey traces of trauma created by the bureaucratic system of mass incarceration. Using aerial views of prison complexes as a point of reference, she extracts colors (blues in particular), demarcation lines, and other fragments that touch on the experience of visiting her father in various prisons over the past 19 years. The subsequent works examine and dismantle regulatory codes that are both embedded in the body yet deeply impersonal, creating a space where achieving normalcy begets an alien, unfamiliar presence.