Bridget Smith

Artist in Residence: 24 October – 16 December 2006

British artist Bridget Smith was the inaugural Artist in Residence at Two Rooms in December 2006.

A resident of London, Smith proposed a visit to the Mt John Observatory at Lake Tekapo, to continue her exploration of real and constructed spaces – locations where one can easily lose oneself.

“Her latest series of images are inspired by the outer reaches of the universe.   Photographs showing two of the most easily found constellations in the night sky; Orion, The Great Hunter and Ursa Major, also known as The Great Bear or Big The Dipper are perhaps the most easily identifiable constellations in the night sky – Smith imagines them as an anchor – as a way to place oneself in the vast tracts of deep space. A new film Monitoring Space captures an individual’s fascination with outer space. Shot at the Mills Observatory in Dundee it focuses on what it means to be obsessed with another reality and how that affects one’s everyday life.

Bridget Smith’s photographs document the construction of fantasy, the architecture of entertainment and the environments created principally for the consumption of pleasure. She is interested in the way that entertainment is presented to us, in the organisation and control that is necessary for fantasies to be made real and in the places where pretence and reality are confused. Many of Smith’s photographs focus on the details that go into the industry of escapism – the space, the lighting, the effects of colour and the choice of props. All of these are designed to seduce and allow us to embrace a new role, however momentarily. She sees her work as revealing a somewhat privileged view of this construction, like a tourist observing their surroundings without ever being a part of them.”
Frith Street Gallery London

Bridget Smith was born in 1966 and studied at Goldsmith’s College, London. Notable solo exhibitions include: Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin (2003) Centro de Arte de Salamanca (2002), British Council Windows Gallery, Prague (1999) and Fotogalleriet, Oslo (1999). Group shows including: Our Surroundings, Dundee Contemporary Arts (2005), Sodium Dreams, CCS Museum, Bard College, New York and Vertigo: The Future of the City at the Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow. She was awarded the first Tate Tokyo Residency in early 2000.

Bridget Smith is represented by Frith Street Gallery, London.