Arteles Catalogue 2023-2020
Arteles Creative Center's residency artists and their projects 2023-2020
Arteles Creative Center's residency artists and their projects 2023-2020
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Silence Awareness Existence program / FEBRUARY <strong>2023</strong><br />
Alli Smith<br />
USA<br />
www.allismyth.com<br />
About<br />
I'm Alli Smith, also known as Alli’s Myth!<br />
I am a multidisciplinary artist with a strong affinity for painting;<br />
playing with my sense of humor and searching for ways to<br />
adequately express my existential dread simultaneously.<br />
I utilize playful mark making, a vibrant color palette, and I<br />
use a recurring motif of what I consider to be cyclops-feline<br />
creatures to drive the narratives in my artworks. These<br />
cyclopi, alongside other distorted figures, serve as tools of<br />
transformation and emotional catharsis; turning parts of my<br />
life that are confusing, painful, or embarrassing into a cast<br />
of characters experiencing these same feelings amongst<br />
themselves and with each other. The specifics of these<br />
narratives are often murky; intentionally so that my audience<br />
can project their own feelings onto a given piece. I find<br />
that what is not being said is just as important as what is.<br />
Ultimately, through my work I aim to create a contradictory<br />
feeling of lightheartedness and sorrowfulness.<br />
With Love, Cyclops<br />
My primary project at <strong>Arteles</strong> was a costumed performance,<br />
“Cyclops Sends Her Love”. Out of canvas and acrylic paint I<br />
created a mask, gloves, and pants with a tail included; made<br />
to wear. Originally this was going to be the extent of the<br />
project, alongside documentation of me wearing it outdoors.<br />
Separately, I realized I wanted to create a way of saying<br />
goodbye to everyone at <strong>Arteles</strong>, other than just saying it. I<br />
had the thought of using felt to cut out hearts with cyclops<br />
faces drawn on them, and give one to everyone.<br />
During an evening meditation session I realized my costume<br />
and my goodbye could work together, and thus the cyclops<br />
sent her love! I called all willing participants to come together<br />
outside, and from the shed I emerged with a bag in tow;<br />
handing it off to Katy to grab a felt heart from and pass around<br />
for everyone to do the same. They were made to keep.<br />
As some <strong>Arteles</strong> residents left for their own reasons, saying<br />
goodbye in their own ways, I knew it was important for me<br />
to say goodbye in my own way; a tangible way to show my<br />
appreciation to everyone I met.<br />
I wanted “Cyclops Sends Her Love” to be a means of<br />
bringing us together in a humorous yet sweet way, kind of<br />
the antithesis of going quietly into the night. Its goal was to<br />
reflect how I feel about my time spent at <strong>Arteles</strong>- grateful and<br />
abundant in love!