Kathy Smith is an Australian artist who has been working with animation,
painting, installation, and sound since 1982. After graduating from
Visual Communication at Sydney College of the Arts in 1985
she was awarded the Sydney Morning Herald Traveling Arts
Scholarship for painting.
From 1987 – 1988 she studied and worked in Europe at the Dr Denise
Hickey studio residency at the Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris
and under the Dyason Bequest study grant at Studio Art Centers
International, Florence, Italy. Both awarded from the Art gallery of
NSW.
Since 1984, her films have been screened internationally, including
SIGGRAPH N-Space Art Gallery, Sundance Film Festival, New York
Digital Salon, Hiroshima, Anima Mundi, and Ottawa International
Animation Festivals. She has a strong record of achievement in
research and creative work spanning twenty-three years.This
includes international research residencies in France, Italy, USA
and Asia awarded by the Art Gallery of NSW and the Australia Council.
Kathy has exhibited internationally at group and solo exhibitions such as
Institute of Contemporary Art, London, Conservatorio di Santa Maria
degli Angeli, Florence, Italy, and the Australian National Gallery, Canberra.
She has received numerous awards and grants to support and create
these works, including two Development Grants for the Visual Arts Board
of the Australia Council, the Desiderius Orban Art Award for Animation,
and a production grant from the Australian Film Commission for her last
film, "Indefinable Moods".
In 1994 she was selected for the Australian Network for Art and
Technology summer residency and it was here that she started
her research in combining 2D oil painted sequences onto 3D forms.
Since then she has been researching 2D and 3D computer generated
digital imaging with Dolby digital sound. This culminated in a three-year
residency at the USC School of Cinema and Television’s Division of
Animation and Digital Arts, where she executed and combined her
research in Alias Wavefront Maya to create "Indefinable Moods", a 2D/3D
animated film exploring dreams, symbols, and natural landscapes funded
by the Australian Film Commission.
In 2002 she was awarded a full-time position at Associate Professor level
at USC and received tenure in 2003. Currently she is Chair of the Division
of Animation and Digital Arts, School of Cinema-Television.
She is currently working on her new research project “Slippages” funded
by the Zumberge Research Grant at USC.
[For more information see artist curriculum vitae]
[For more detailed information see academic curriculum vitae]
My work is an attempt to convey the mystery of existence through the
non-linear narrative of dreams. I am fascinated with the human
experience and how this is processed through our physical senses and
interpreted via the neurological pathways in the brain, what images
are retained and what narratives are formed during our conscious
and unconscious moments.
I am concerned with the universal symbolism of dream landscapes
and the relationship of the human psyche to the environment regardless of
its physical location or form. The potential for conveying a metaphysical
experience through the media of animation, installation, and sound has
always inspired me. Structurally I am interested in the infinite possibilities of
any one moment, the inner experience of time running simultaneously with
the concurrent or divergent time of outer happenings.
Artistically as a painter I have always been driven to communicate more
than just a static image. The mental and conceptual process of painting is
something that I have always tried to convey through the exhibition format
itself. When exhibiting my work in an installation, I incorporate sound into
the exhibition space; additionally, I construct collage maps to show how the
images evolved and fitted together sequentially. The discovery of animation
was a revelation for me: for the first time I could convey the internal thought
processes of painting and drawing through a temporal medium.
On its own, painting can define a concept by composition, color, and
layering. What has always fascinated me about animation is its potential
to capture or provoke a thought via kinetic energy and sound. Animation,
by its very nature, adds another dimension to painting by adding temporal,
spatial, and aural movement and space to static images.
Constantly moving, animation allows the viewer to become part of an
artwork’s creation. The brushstrokes, shapes, and ideas are seen, passed
by, and arrived at, - an animated film concretizes the thought process
that creates a static work by incorporating the physical senses of
movement and sound.
I truly believe the art form of animation developed as a way to reflect
our own physical and mental evolutionary process. The infinite connection
to everything in existence is the underlying force that makes animation
a powerful medium for conveying complex ideas, dreams and emotions.
[For more detailed information see artist's statement for tenure]