Taylor Smith KKAiR 5/2021

Residency artist of May Taylor Smith is a multi-disciplinary visual artist based Paris, France. During her residency period in Ii, she will hold a series of workshops on alternative photography techniques and present her works at exhibition ‘’Printing Through the Landscape’’ at KulttuuriKauppila.

Taylor Smith is an American visual artist based in Paris, France. Her multi-disciplinary, research-based practice finds itself at the intersection of environmental art, bio art and traditional techniques of printmaking, sculpture, and photography. Smith has participated in several group and solo exhibitions, notably in Paris, Berlin, Venice and Boston, in addition to residencies in Finland and Spain. She is currently in residence at 6b in Paris.

‘’My artistic practice consists of a series of attempts to unravel and recontextualize human transformations of nature into culture. In order to better understand our insatiable human desire to somehow control and “perfect” nature, my practice begins with close observation of the natural world. I spend long hours in various landscapes carefully observing the cycles of life/growth, and senescence/decomposition. Since childhood, I’ve been particularly drawn to the inconspicuous microcosmes of tidal pools, mosses, lichens and fungi. Through collecting and photography, I attempt to capture, then preserve or print the traces of these natural environments and phenomena using a variety of photosensitive techniques, from chlorophyll printing to photogravure. Through these in-situ and ex-situ visual practices, I seek to find and reveal the pre-existing links between myself, human, and a variety of seemingly unfamiliar international landscapes.’’

Smith received a B.F.A. in Painting and a B.A. in Art History from Boston University in 2015, before completing an M.A. in Cultural Mediation at the École du Louvre in Paris in 2017. She was then awarded the Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship by the Fondation des ÉtatsUnis in Paris (2017-2018).

Before her residency period in Ii, Smith was in residence at Ars Bioarctica in Kilpisjärvi. During her residency period in KulttuuriKauppila, Smith will also hold a series of workshops on alternative photography techniques. At the end of her residency period her works will be seen at exhibition ‘’Printing Through the Landscape’’ at KulttuuriKauppila.

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