Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

“Things are never by themselves. Neither are we. They are among themselves and linger in our surroundings. And we sometimes see them, and us among them, as things among things. Yes, but not quite, not only.” This is how Jan Verwoert starts his text ‘Enter the Eerie Thingscapes’ on Sam Smith’s video installation ‘Form Variations’ (2014). The work, shot in the widescreen CinemaScope ratio, is an atmospheric looping meditation on cinema’s relationship to space and things. The non-narrative structure coalesces object, figure and location into a series of composed vignettes that swing between the hyperreal and the surreal. Key to the work are two specific references from the beginning of Michelangelo Antonioni’s ‘L’Eclisse’ that illuminate ideas that lie subtly in the fabric of the 1962 film. Specifically, the opening shot in which the character of Riccardo`s arm is perceived first as inanimate form, then revealed as flesh.

Sam Smith lives and works between London and Sydney. His current artistic practice spans video, sculpture, installation and performance. From 2013 to 2014 he was an artist in residency as part of the Künstlerhaus Bethanien International Studio Programme in Berlin. Recent solo exhibitions and performances include ‘The Performative Minute’ at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2014); ’Notes on the Apparatus' selected by Vdrome for the Artists' Film Biennial, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2014); 'Frames of Rererence', a solo exhibtion at The Royal Standard as part of their Liverpool Biennial 2014 programme (2014) and 'Form Variations' at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2014); He has participated in numerous group shows including 'Online/Offline. Encoding Everyday Life for Vorspeil Transmediale', Altes Finanzamt, Berlin (2014); 'Oblivion', Zweigstelle Berlin (2014); 'Conquest of Space', COFA Galleries, Sydney, Australia (2014); 'Larger than life', Temporära Konsthallen, Stockholm (2013) and 'Framed Perceptions', Sinne, Helsinki (2013).