Tania Smith - Untitled (domestic gestures)

TANIA SMITH Untitled (domestic gestures) 14 May to 9 June 2016

TANIA SMITH Untitled (domestic gestures) 14 May to 9 June 2016

The videos here show absurd moments of escape. Like the slapstick of Buster Keaton, a woman is trapped in a loop of pleasure and anxiety, but how wonderful, to forget oneself.

This series of videos depict a woman attempting to escape the everyday through a variety of comic vignettes. The videos are an archive of absurd gestures, repetitious, futile, joyous, and mischievous.

They are intended to be humorous, and have a slapstick quality to them. I am always interested in disruptions to the status quo, but there’s that famous adage about revolutions- somebody always has to come along and clean up afterwards! So I would like to do both the revolting and the cleaning up.

In these works I have chosen to depict the scallywag, the tramp, the slapstick, or screwball, falling down, messing up, the loveable rogue, in an effort to tap into the humour and humanism of the heroes of the silent era. A homo tantum -character to be sympathised with by all. This is based on the assumption (always dangerous) that humour is something easily shared. In his essay on Laughter, Bergson writes that “The deflection of life to the mechanical is (here) the real cause of laughter.” (p13) The woman I am showing is, like the myth of Sisyphus, trapped in an eternal loop. Moments of pleasure and anxiety co-exist, in perhaps a kind of virtual space that exists without established hierarchies and boundaries, which has its own logic and momentum. However the woman here stops. She hesitates as she seemingly makes a choice, to remain in the abandon of this space, or to fall back down, to the prosaic and mundane.

Tania Smith, ‘Untitled #8 (rolling)’ 2013 HD Video - 37sec. Silent edition of 3 + 1AP Filmed in Elwood, Victoria Camera assistant: Kellie Dene Provenance: c3 Contemporary Artspace, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne, 1 to 19 October 2014.

Vertigo, Galeri Soemardja, Indonesia, 20 March to 15 April 2014.

Vertigo, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Taiwan, 9 May to 8 June 2014.

Vertigo, POSCO Museum, South Korea, 23 July to 27 Augist 2014.

Channels Nocturne Program, 16 to 21 September 2013.

QView Public Arts, Winter Digital Projection Program, Albury, 18 April to 11 May 2013.

Tania Smith, ‘Untitled #1 (pillow)’ 2010 Video - 4:32mins. Silent edition of 3 + 1AP Filmed in Newport, Melbourne Camera assistant: Kellie Dene Provenance: c3 Contemporary Artspace, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne, 1 to 19 October 2014.

Winter Night Screen, Counihan Gallery, 20 to 26 June 2014.

Screen space, Melbourne, 17 May to 22 June 2013.

The Substation Centre for Arts and Culture, Newport, 25 October to 18 November 2012.

Night Screen, Seventh Gallery, Gertrude St, Fitzroy, 17 August to 3 September 2011.

Tania Smith, ‘Untitled #2 (fire extinguisher)’ 2010 Video - 1:25mins. Silent edition of 3 + 1AP Filmed in Newport, Melbourne Camera assistant: Kellie Dene Provenance: c3 Contemporary Artspace, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne, 1 to 19 October 2014.

Vertigo, Galeri Soemardja, Indonesia, 20 March to 15 April 2014.

Vertigo, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Taiwan, 9 May to 8 June 2014.

Vertigo, POSCO Museum, South Korea, 23 July to 27 Augist 2014.

Destination: Here and Destination: Now, Blindside ARI, Melbourne, 2 to 8 August 2012.

The Substation Centre for Arts and Culture, Newport, 25 October to 18 November 2012.

Night Screen, Seventh Gallery, Gertrude St, Fitzroy, 17 August to 3 September 2011.

Tania Smith, ‘Untitled #3 (plates)’ 2011 Video - 2:56mins. Silent edition of 3 + 1AP Filmed in Carlton, Melbourne Camera assistant: Kellie Dene Provenance: c3 Contemporary Artspace, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne, 1 to 19 October 2014.

The Substation Centre for Arts and Culture, Newport, 25 October to 18 November 2012.

Night Screen, Seventh Gallery, Gertrude St, Fitzroy, 17 August to 3 September 2011.

Tania Smith, ‘Untitled #6 (toaster)’ 2012 HD Video - 40secs. Silent edition of 3 + 1AP Filmed in Whorouly, Victoria Camera assistant: Kellie Dene Provenance: c3 Contemporary Artspace, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne, 1 to 19 October 2014.

Vertigo, Galeri Soemardja, Indonesia, 20 March to 15 April 2014.

Vertigo, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Taiwan, 9 May to 8 June 2014.

Vertigo, POSCO Museum, South Korea, 23 July to 27 Augist 2014.

QView Public Arts, Winter Digital Projection Program, Albury, 18 April to 11 May 2013

Tania Smith, ‘Untitled #7 (sweeping)’ 2012 HD Video - 1:12mins. Silent edition of 3 + 1AP Filmed in Whorouly, Victoria Camera assistant: Kellie Dene Provenance: c3 Contemporary Artspace, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne, 1 to 19 October 2014.

QView Public Arts, Winter Digital Projection Program, Albury, 18 April to 11 May 2013.

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