TRACES

About

In their work, Sharon James and David Smith both explore the traces of things past and endeavour to create something more beautiful from subjects that are sometimes not so pretty. Sharon James’s latest works are concerned with what has gone before in her own history and in the world around her: investigating matters both deep and superficial. Her autobiographical work explores her black identity and links to slavery through a series of drawings and paintings. The antidote to delving into what is often quite dark are a series of digital drawings/collages that are deliberate in their aesthetic endeavour to produce something other and beautiful. For some years, David Smith has been exploring the notion that nothing is ever completely eradicated: barely perceptible traces of every action remain like DNA signatures capable of being read by those with the knowledge and technology. Usually Smith’s abstract and often minimalist work is directly inspired by the patterns and processes in our landscape, but much of the work in “Traces” focusses on human conflict and the sad fact that wars will always flare up again and the causes can never be covered up or eradicated.