Bolder and Onward | Gina A Smith | Ort Gallery by artistscatalogues

GINA A SMITH

BOLDER AND ONWARD | ORT GALLERY 2021

This book is dedicated to my lovely mum To everyone else who lost loved ones "May you endure, peace and joy in this life's journey." Salute’

Very Special Thank You To:

Madge Dresser, Peter Fleming, Dr Shawn-Naphtali Sobers, Lorraine Joseph, Tony Robinson (Activist and Historian), Vanley Burke, Keith Piper, Barbara Walker, David A Bailey, Black British Art Collective, Carers UK, DASH Shropshire, BLK ART GROUP, The Lagrams and Pasha

INTRODUCTION BY LENNIE VARVARIDES - FOUNDER OF DYSPLA

DYSPLA is a London-based art studio developing and promoting the work of Neurodivergent Creatives. I am obsessed with development — both as an agent and a producer. I want to know everything about Neurodivergent Creatives and how they form their aesthetics. I want to understand their creative process and their e ort that determines their output I was honoured when Gina asked me to mentor her in preparation for the exhibition Bolder & Onwards, at the Ort Gallery in Birmingham, made possible by Arts Council England funding. This project has supported and developed Gina’s studio practice, which has led to a new community for Gina and given her space to be a practicing artist. The studio space is sacred and vital for an artist's practical and mental professional development. Gina approached me asking for help inding the “narrative” in her work. Her exact words were: “I want to learn how to create a narrative as a Dyslexic artist.” Perhaps it is odd for a painter to want explain their art using words when it is worth more than just words. Yet, we live in a literal world where everyone expects artists to explain themselves. Explanation proves a level of legitimacy, or as the Market calls it, Value, because Art, like all other commodities, works o the capitalist model of value. Who drives this need for the explanation? Is it the galleries or the audience? Who is responsible for valuing the experience that art provides? Does the experience change with the artist’s explanation? Everyone wants more, they want the story behind the painting. The audience do not trust their own ideas and are scared of getting it wrong. So, the artist is more responsible than ever for explaining their intentions, thoughts, memories. The gallery wants it. Even this e-book requires it. It’s a necessary part of the conversation, of the marketing. It is expected. So, eventually, we give in and comply…or not.

Words don’t come easily to Gina or many Neurodivergent Creatives. Forcing language to make sense takes unnatural e ort. Gina is not alone in struggling to ind words to explain their work. Gina explained to me that the very act of it dilutes their authenticity. I also found it hard to draw a narrative structure into Gina’s work, because narrative and structure, are not natural components of their practice. Instead, Gina is more comfortable focusing on a meditative approach to painting and being inspired by objects, symbols, or colours as opposed to traditional or normal narrative structure or character. When pushed, Gina confesses using colour to illustrate how and what they are feeling. Feelings are more important in their practice than the accuracy of what they translate onto the canvas. Gina uses the act of painting to revisit a feeling or the memory the feeling conjures up. To attempt to ind the language of explanation, I ask Gina questions about her work. Gina described her aesthetic as, “simplistic,” which she attributes to her formative years in rudimentary education. She asks her audience to take the “undone” tone of her work as they ind it, which also translates into, “take me as you ind me.” Translated again…, I interpret this as, “let me exist, let my art exist.” I have frequently noticed this concept of the un inished, or ‘undone’, among Neurodivergent creatives. I personally believe there is a Neurodivergent Aesthetic that can be identi ied clearer in speci ic identities, such as the Dyslexic, Dyspraxic, and/or the AD(H)D artist. For many, their identities intersect across the spectrum of learning and behavioural di erences. I notice it in my own practice too. Attention or interest shifts quickly between projects. A spiritual exchange within the creative process. Gina was undiagnosed during her college years and there were further disadvantages for Black and African students who were, and still are, disproportionally undiagnosed compared to their white contemporaries. Instead of getting a Dyslexia diagnosis, she was sent to a “special” school. The system failed Gina as it did and still does many neurodivergent students. Gina uses this process of making to relive childhood memories, the practice is a means of unpacking her identity. The act of painting, if you are lucky, is a pathway back home. A looking glass into both the real and the alternate life; only artists can truly blur the lines between heightened memory and the literal world. Here is where Gina’s work intersects. Gina is aware she must ind words to explain and promote her work, but when the words do not materialize, she asks her mentors to describe her work instead. As one of her mentors whose purpose was to help Gina ind the narrative, I failed. Or, I was naive to believe I allocated enough time to advocate the bene its of narrative and the methods of carving it out.

Gina inds another way, like all Neurodivergent Creatives she delegates. The artist has been delegating for centuries, it is nothing new and not obviously punk…apart from refusing to play the word game so honestly. This game of explaining, justifying and branding yourself an artist is all part of the marketing game. Gina refuses it. Gina refuses to sell herself or her work, literally — she has never sold a piece of work. When I asked her about this, she said she would prefer to give it away to someone who loved it. Art is not a commodity for Gina. This approach keeps her free to paint to her own rhythm without pressure to appease. If Gina does not sell her art, does this still make her an artist? Does she have the right to exist as an artist? Think about these questions as you experience Gina’s work, which represents her honesty and lived experience. Working with Gina reminded me that, as an artist, the process is the true prize. As creative people, we are in our element when we are in awe. Gina is in constant awe of her surroundings. She thinks in terms of painting, each an experience. It is the experience of doing or making that is most fascinating and important to her. While it is tempting to treat painting like work, it defeats the nature of creativity.

(Right: Work in Progress by Smith in their studio)

III

The obstacles to living a creative life are still mostly class-based in the commercial art world. Art, especially painting, is the most intimidating and expensive art form to participate in. If you are an outsider; if you are working class, neurodivergent, have mental health challenges, and were not born white, this world can be even more hostile to you, especially if you are without elite art school training. Gina has made her own way through this terrain, learning from mentors and with peers instead of tutors and lecturers. As a self-taught artist, Gina is aware of the stigma and judgement her paintings experience, yet demands the opportunity to participate and the freedom to develop at her own speed. Like most outsiders, Gina had to ind another way, the longer route which proves her determination to succeed. For Gina, success is the opportunity to keep her art studio and to create every week. Gina has experienced inancial di iculties that have a ected her creative low and routine. Gina’s investment into an art studio came with debt and stress as well as joy and the Arts Council funding was a lifeline. Being an artist is expensive, most working class artists never get the opportunity, especially those who have been young carers for most of their adult-life like Gina has. “Stereotypical white middle-class males have not responded positively to my work, but I want to move away from their feedback, listening to them say, ‘I am not a good artist, will just make me a blocked artist” - Gina A Smith We all need a space to fail as well as to excel and in many ways that is far more interesting and important. The things we ind hard as artists lead us forward. Each struggle, a story of endurance and promise in its own right. Each painting an act of love between the artist and their practice. This exhibition has taught Gina to accept herself as a legitimate artist, given her the con idence to continue past di iculty and has taught her that she has a voice and stories to contribute. This exhibition has provided Gina with the mental and inancial opportunity to develop as an artist, to treat herself and her practice, professionally, to build a community of mentors and educators, and to learn the basic skills of networking and fundraising. The work is not for me to question or even understand. It’s not for you either.

Gina's work; her paintings, are an extension of her senses, her dreams, her memories. Hanging the painting up in a gallery does not make the painting public. Words make a painting public. Words expose us and make us vulnerable. “The resultant works will reveal perceptions I am faced with.” - Gina A Smith. This exhibition will inspire those struggling with the challenge of living a creative life to follow their own path. Gina shows us through the sheer volume of output, that creativity is an intuitive process and she paints as a means to discover and learn. Gina has reminded me of the joy of the act of painting. Gina comments in an interview, that she has learned not only how to improve her technique and professional etiquette as a practicing studio artist, but also how to have fun with the process of painting, while breaking the rules. Most outsiders break the rules and the act of breaking them leads to new discoveries about our work and ourselves. This ebook will do the same, illing you with a desire to explore your creative self and creative desires. Gina feels an a inity with artist Paula Rego, who was quoted in the Guardian newspaper saying, ‘making a painting can reveal things you keep secret from yourself’ explaining painting as a pathway to self discovery. This has been Gina’s experience too, she explains it as, “Painting is spiritual, it opens you up and connects you to your dreams and memories in more obvious ways”. “To the creative artist, in the making of art, it is doubtful whether aesthetics have any value to him.” - David Smith Let every artist seek and have the con idence to pursue their own creative journey, without compromise or restrictions from their audience. by Lennie Varvarides, DYSPLA Founder, 2021 With thanks to Anne Marie Lagram, Ashokkumar Mistry, Josephine Reichert, Lennie Varvarides and Dr Shawn Sobers. Reference to: “Aesthetics, the Artist and the Audience,” in Art in Theory: 1900- 2000, ed. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003), 586.

I-V

Introduction by Lennie Varvarides

1-2

Artist’s Statement - Gina A Smith

Artworks in Collaboration with Ashokkumar Mistry

Blue Woods - In Progress

Bedminster Train Stop, 2020

Blue Woods

Self Portrait, Gina In The Woods,

Excerpt from Ashokkumar Mistry

6-7

Re lections on Self Portrait Gina in the Woods by Dr Shawn Sobers

Ashton Court in Red

Metamorphosis

Black In A School Daze (Daze)

19-20

Previous Exhibition: Schwarmerei Members Show

Photograph of Gina A Smith by Bird Girl

Acknowledgements

Ashton Sublime

Bolder & Onward by Ashokkumar Mistry

10-11

Weeping Willow

White Van

CONTENTS

Painting in the Studio. Self Portrait, Gina in The Woods in Progress.

ARTIST STATEMENT BY GINA A SMITH This project continues my interest in exploring my past as a black, disabled child/young woman in Bristol suburbia and brings me forward to now as an artist coping with a Birmingham based studio coming out of a Covid pandemic. I have been mentored by; Bristol based Dr Shawn Naphtali Sobers whose work explores 'Hidden Identities', artist Ashokkumar Mistry relating to 'Hidden Disability' and Lennie Varvarides founder of DYSPLA about narratives in my work. Josephine Reichert ORT gallery has helped me to explore ways to share my work to a larger audience.

My work will reveal my hidden struggles to make others aware & hopeful.

Artworks in collaboration with Ashokkumar Mistry, 2020.

Bedminster Train Stop. 30.7cm x 25.5cm. (Oil on canvas). November 2020.

Gina in The Woods. 62.2cm x 88cm. (Oil on Free hanging canvas). July 2021.

BY DR SHAWN SOBERS Self-portrait, Gina in the Woods, presents a bold representation of the artist in a rural landscape, and nature settings constitute half of the images in this publication. The painting contains a dramatic quality, with the turn of her head, the focus of her eyes, the fall of her hair, and the wildness of the tree branches. The viewer is dropped into the middle of a frozen scene, a ‘pregnant moment’ (1) where we don’t know what happened to trigger that wide eyed stare, and we don’t know what happens next or how the scene will resolve. The scene contains undepicted and unknowable narratives, and which can remind the viewer of a ilm still, or photograph, a slice of a moment arrested in time. The painting is indeed depicted from a photograph, making the notional dramatic quality even more intentional by Smith, and the possibilities of the unknowable narrative even more potent in our imaginations. The title Self-portrait, Gina in the Woods, speaks of two key elements – presence and location. The depiction of black female presence in a rural landscape, can remind certain viewers of Ingrid Pollard’s series Pastoral Interludes, which presents the argument that Black presence in rural spaces should not be viewed as an alien concept in the UK, not in 1987 when that work was created, and particularly not now in 2020/2021, in the period of these works by Smith. Writer and photographer Robert Adams suggests that engaging landscape images contain at least two of three pictural or inferred elements – geography, autobiography, and metaphor (2), and for me, Self-portrait, Gina in the Woods successfully has all three. An art critic can argue whether this is indeed a landscape image or a portrait, and the accurate description of the source photograph would be an ‘environmental portrait’. As depicted in the resulting painting, both the human presence and the surrounding landscape are active characters in the scene, each adding unique personality into the dramatic visual narrative in equal measure.

SELF PORTRAIT, GINA IN THE WOODS

When I irst encountered this painting in Gina’s studio, it was completely covered by brown paper taped over it on the wall, which she had to rip o to be able to view it. The paper was put there as Gina said she found the painting “distracting”, and constantly seeing it meant she kept wanting to work further on it, not satis ied with the self-representation. The mere bold presence of the depicted self, kept on demanding her scrutiny. In an age where the (socalled) sel ie is ubiquitous in social media craving Likes, there is something endearing that a painted self-portrait, which has a long illustrious history in the world of art, is completely covered over as it drew too much attention.

Drawing on Adams’ inspiration, Self-portrait, Gina in the Woods, says, “I am here”. Taking the lead from Pollard, the painting shouts, “I was always here”. Covered over in the artist’s studio, the image screams, “I am still here.” To try and chase the original narrative of the source photograph is missing the point. Let that remain unknown and hidden. Surely the only narrative that matters is the visual facts of the painting itself – Gina is in the woods staring at us the viewer with a hard stare. The only fact we can ever know for sure, is how that makes us personally feel. (1) Mumford, M. (2003), Barthes on Brecht’s Tableau: Fetish meets Flux, Communications from the International Brecht Society, vol. 32, pp. 42 - 47 (2) Adams, R. (1996), Beauty in Photography. Aperture, New York, 1996, p. 14

White Van. 64cm x 88cm. (Oil on Free hanging canvas). July 2021.

Weeping Willow. 98cm x 86.5cm. (Oil on Free hanging canvas). January 2021.

BOLDER & ONWARD TEXT BY ASHOKKUMAR MISTRY The paintings of Gina A Smith explore themes of childhood, upbringing, milieu from the perspective of a black neurodivergent person living in the UK. At the core of the work is an immutable spirit of play and experimentation that turns away from the rote and burden of realism towards a honesty of memory that focuses on the feeling of a moment rather than ixating on the details lost to time. Freedom of expression is favoured over the labour of accuracy as while some paintings are created from memory, some are referenced by photographs, though only as a starting point. The paintbrush is an oar, which is used to push one away from the shore of reality and we drift into memory. "When I'm trying to be accurate or precise I lose a sense of freedom... things become too rigid" Painting can never be a binary of realistic or abstract, but instead, o ers myriad examples of how we all process the world around us so di erently. There is an honesty in the work of Gina A Smith that reduces the need for accurate representation as a story is told. In this way, Smith creates a stillness that stops the eye from darting around for detail to settle and read the lived reality of what is being depicted. There are a number of landscape paintings within the collection that exemplify the spirit of play and experimentation of how memories are expressed through an artwork. All of these paintings examine the landscape in and around Bristol where Smith was raised during her formative years.

The weeping willow was Smith’s attempts at painting with oils. The painting is based on a real willow tree from her childhood that is ingrained in memory but has since been cut down. Instead of creating an accurate deception of a willow tree, Smith focuses on reliving her memories of interacting with the tree as well as exploring what the tree meant to her. The process of making the painting was liberating as it was a chance to push this new medium through an old memory. Aston Court is a place that Smith has had a long association with. It was important to enable the viewer to connect with her experience of the place and understand a coded story of her relationship with this place through an otherwise untold story. Two paintings were created based

on the place titled ‘Ashton Court’ and ‘Ashton Court in Red’. For the irst of these paintings it was important to explain her feeling of being in this landscape and so, Smith worked to use colour to depict association, mood and a sense of seeing Ashton Court in a di erent light. Painting ‘Ashton Court in Red’ was more challenging as Smith struggled with a perceived obligation to accuracy. Once she connected with the honesty of her connection to the place, Smith was better motivated to express the story through paint. Again, ‘Blue Wood’ is a meditation on natural environments in Bristol that are brought alive through experimentation with paint. The perspective draws the viewer into a fantastical landscape that is both tempting and foreboding in equal measure.

Ashton Sublime, 61cm x 93cm. (Oil on Free hanging canvas). March 2021.

Blue Woods. 77.5cm x 94cm. (Work in Progress). (Oil on Free hanging canvas).

Blue Woods. 77.5cm x 94cm. (Oil on Free hanging canvas). July 2021.

WHEN SMITH PAINTS, SHE AVOIDS RULES AND INSTEAD SEES IT AS WORKING OUT A COMPLEX EQUATION. ASHOKKUMAR MISTRY

“When I'm painting, I'm having a conversation with the work. Maths is not my strong point, but I can paint and in a way, painting is a form of calculation that is personal to me. Painting is a form of performance that is not about bragging or showing prowess but instead tells a story that has been overlooked”.

Ashton Court in Red. 75.5cm x 98cm. (Oil on Free hanging canvas). June 2021.

Metamorphosis. 91.3cm x 122cm. (Work in Progress). (Oil on canvas). June 2021.

Black Girl In A School Daze (Daze). 75cm x 73cm. (Oil and spray paint on Free hanging on fabric). June 2021.

PREVIOUS EXHIBITION SCHWARMEREI MEMBERS SHOW Gina A Smith exhibited work at the ORT Gallery’s Schwarmerei Members Show in 2018 and 2019. One piece was chosen as the featured artwork for the publicity (see right).

Photography This Page & Opposite: Josephine Reichert

Gina A Smith. Photo Taken by Bird Girl, 2020.

With thanks to Anne Marie Lagram, Ashokkumar Mistry, Josephine Reichert, Lennie Varvarides and Dr Shawn Sobers With thanks to the Arts Council for funding and support Design by Holly Pleydell Supplies for the materials Digbeth Fabric Shop, Harris Art Supplies, Jackson Art Supplies, Cass Arts, B&Q, Amazon and Ebay Bibliography reference: Bristol Ethnic Minorities and the City 1000 2001; Madge Dresser and Peter Fleming Front and Back Covers: Ashton Sublime, 2021

Gina A Smith ginaasmithart@gmail.com Gina A Smith Art | Outside In

@GinaASmithart @ginaasmithart