tragic + comic

With every hour not at work taken up with creating my latest crochet object I went looking for inspiration and stumbled upon Adam Parker Smith, a US based artist uses a collection of mined everyday objects to explore the aftermath of invented ceremonies. Using a mix of sculpture and installation his works are darkly humorous and create an uncomfortable feeling in the viewer. It is works from his first solo exhibition in 2007 ‘Bold as Love’ that caught my eye. Viewers ran the gauntlet between severed heads to see the work and construct the narrative of what may have played out – was it love, lust or obsession in an act to reflect on the glorification of violence.
These works went on to evolve into a residency working with seven high school students in the Blue Sky Project where more decapitated heads were created from scraps of felt and pins to create a landscape of self portraits and American icons shown in a central New York shop window.