Dillwyn Smith
Be A Lantern in the Dark, 2020
Perspex cube, nylon, burnt stretcher, mirrored card
20x20x20cm
Copyright The Artist
b. 1958, UK; lives and works in London 1983-1986 Royal College of Art, London, MA 1978-1981 Canterbury College of Art, BA Following artist residencies in Latvia (the birth place of...
b. 1958, UK; lives and works in London
1983-1986 Royal College of Art, London, MA
1978-1981 Canterbury College of Art, BA
Following artist residencies in Latvia (the birth place of Mark Rothko) and Oman, Dillwyn Smith began a series of works that eschew the canvas and replace it with transparent fabric that reveals not only light and colour but the supporting structure of the stretcher beneath. He says: “Across the years I became excited that colour within fabric, as opposed to on fabric, refracts light and interacts with the eye differently to a painted surface’. So these are not paintings, but rather, painterly fabric pieces. Or perhaps they might be called fabric paintings”
Carrying on this exploration of light and transparency for Cure3, Smith has embraced the Perspex space to produce Be a Lantern in the Dark. Made with fabrics sourced in markets as far apart as Oman and London, the artist has transformed the cube into a polyptych, sitting on top of a cardboard mirror. The stretcher has been blowtorched, then waxed, and the mirror adds a playful element while it also illuminates the work. One reviewer has commented that Smith’s greatest gift is “to imbue colour with spiritual energy”. Here, in the context of Cure3, Be a Lantern in the Dark, provides a message of hope, friendship and positivity.
www.patrickheide.com
Portrait courtesy the Artist
1983-1986 Royal College of Art, London, MA
1978-1981 Canterbury College of Art, BA
Following artist residencies in Latvia (the birth place of Mark Rothko) and Oman, Dillwyn Smith began a series of works that eschew the canvas and replace it with transparent fabric that reveals not only light and colour but the supporting structure of the stretcher beneath. He says: “Across the years I became excited that colour within fabric, as opposed to on fabric, refracts light and interacts with the eye differently to a painted surface’. So these are not paintings, but rather, painterly fabric pieces. Or perhaps they might be called fabric paintings”
Carrying on this exploration of light and transparency for Cure3, Smith has embraced the Perspex space to produce Be a Lantern in the Dark. Made with fabrics sourced in markets as far apart as Oman and London, the artist has transformed the cube into a polyptych, sitting on top of a cardboard mirror. The stretcher has been blowtorched, then waxed, and the mirror adds a playful element while it also illuminates the work. One reviewer has commented that Smith’s greatest gift is “to imbue colour with spiritual energy”. Here, in the context of Cure3, Be a Lantern in the Dark, provides a message of hope, friendship and positivity.
www.patrickheide.com
Portrait courtesy the Artist