Pamphlet 1 – Aaron Smyth | Introduction
Welcome to Pamphlet…
The HeadStuff Visual section is starting a new series of articles entitled Pamphlet, alluding to how in history, such publications were used to distribute information on a given topic in a casual way. So, think of this series in a similar way; it will be presented through images, text and video unceremoniously but all relevant to the one topic and fed through the Visual Arts section of HeadStuff. With Pamphlet, an artist will contribute a fortnightly article. The series will log their artistic praxis including research, inspiration and the practicals of everyday life as an artist in Dublin. We hope that this series gives insight not only to the realities of working as an artist but will also be a novel insight to the art world, one we don’t get to see by visiting galleries and museums. This, being the first instalment, is to introduce the series and our contributing artist, Aaron Smyth (whom you may remember from our Instagram Pick of the Week).
Aaron Smyth is a Dublin-based visual artist, working in a range of mediums including drawing, digital imagery, sculpture and printmaking. He has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. His most recent show was how to grow ( black moon ) with GUM Collective, of which he is a founding member. Six artists, Alex de Roeck, Ciaran Gallen, Mark O’Gorman, Paul McGrane, Sofya Mikhaylova and Aaron Smyth came together to look with an exhibition of video and 2D artworks at the Ground Floor Gallery. Smyth’s own practice investigates “Identity by blending experience, memories and contextual reference to examine the multifaceted and nebulous nature of ‘Being’. The work presents figurative interactions which construct a world suspended between the real and the subconscious. Bodies and gestures are collaged together, informed by academic studies, personal photography, art historical and cultural references, to form theatrical constructs.
The series will detail Aaron’s work and set up for his exhibition in Moscow’s Zverev Centre of Contemporary Art this coming March. Focusing on national identity, the title of the exhibition, Vertices, hints at Aaron’s sensitivity to his subject; he takes the geometrical definition of vertex as a meeting point of lines, curves and angles, all put through different formulae to create them; just as in society so many different concerns and issues create a nation. That ‘vertex’ also has an anatomical definition, the crown of the head, reflects that nation and nationalism is also a deeply personal thing. This will be presented in Moscow through a collection of drawings and prints montaged in an exhibition, highlighting how they can be interpreted together or as individual works.This exhibition will juxtapose these artworks against the work of Moscow based Artist Valery Korchagin who will investigate similar themes from his own upbringing and cultural background in Russia, building another layer of dialogue, this time between two disparate nations and two individuals belonging to either. All this, including the preparation that will led up to it, will be laid out in this series.
The next instalment of Pamphlet will be Monday 19th February, continuing every fortnight in the lead up to Aaron’s exhibition.
Featured Image courtesy of Aaron Smyth
