Australia
jenny Herbert-smith
'Hear with your eyes, see with your ears' - Charlie Parker, American jazz musician.
Jenny Herbert-Smith is a Sydney based artist inspired by the relationship between rhythm and music transpiring into physical forms. Her work explores the interconnection between movement, the body and architecture through assemblages made of steel, concrete, acrylic and wood.
Creating a sense of rhythm and 'static' movement in singular objects made of steel, forms the basis of my art practice. The directness of steel through the welding process allows for an intuitive, additive approach and a spontaneity in which l can engage in a physical conversation with the material. My recent work has seen a shift from single object to the grouping of independent parts, creating a more substantial, installation style arrangement. Expanding my material palette to including; concrete, acrylic and wood broadens the sense of rhythm and movement l am after through a strategy of opposition. Linear steel juxtaposed against solid concrete blocks, space and mass, weight and weightless, colour, black and grey against fluorescent green, yellow and blue. Rhythm and movement evolve through these contrasts.
Each object is initially considered as an independent structure. The geometric concrete blocks require planning in formwork with serendipity, a close friend of spontaneity, occurring through the textural irregularities due to the labour-intensive pouring by hand. The stand-alone structures become part of a larger installation as l arrange and rearrange objects creating new relationships between the assemblages with each new position. It is in this way, that l consider space as an important medium, as l compose the elements from tightly arranged ensembles to larger, more sparsely arranged, compositions.
l work consistently to human scale and arrange objects within a grid relating to the limits of my arm span. Closely linked to my own physicality is my connection to rhythm and movement stemming from a childhood steeped in music which remains an important focus. The movement of my body in the making as l work.
I aim for the arrangements to be viewed firstly as a whole with the viewer's eye encouraged to contemplate the varied elements at play, to moving in, around and amongst the structures engaging on a more physical level reflecting the way in which the objects have been formed.
Jenny Herbert-Smith is a Sydney based artist inspired by the relationship between rhythm and music transpiring into physical forms. Her work explores the interconnection between movement, the body and architecture through assemblages made of steel, concrete, acrylic and wood.
Creating a sense of rhythm and 'static' movement in singular objects made of steel, forms the basis of my art practice. The directness of steel through the welding process allows for an intuitive, additive approach and a spontaneity in which l can engage in a physical conversation with the material. My recent work has seen a shift from single object to the grouping of independent parts, creating a more substantial, installation style arrangement. Expanding my material palette to including; concrete, acrylic and wood broadens the sense of rhythm and movement l am after through a strategy of opposition. Linear steel juxtaposed against solid concrete blocks, space and mass, weight and weightless, colour, black and grey against fluorescent green, yellow and blue. Rhythm and movement evolve through these contrasts.
Each object is initially considered as an independent structure. The geometric concrete blocks require planning in formwork with serendipity, a close friend of spontaneity, occurring through the textural irregularities due to the labour-intensive pouring by hand. The stand-alone structures become part of a larger installation as l arrange and rearrange objects creating new relationships between the assemblages with each new position. It is in this way, that l consider space as an important medium, as l compose the elements from tightly arranged ensembles to larger, more sparsely arranged, compositions.
l work consistently to human scale and arrange objects within a grid relating to the limits of my arm span. Closely linked to my own physicality is my connection to rhythm and movement stemming from a childhood steeped in music which remains an important focus. The movement of my body in the making as l work.
I aim for the arrangements to be viewed firstly as a whole with the viewer's eye encouraged to contemplate the varied elements at play, to moving in, around and amongst the structures engaging on a more physical level reflecting the way in which the objects have been formed.
