Tiffany Smith
Tiffany Smith
2016 Annual Juried Competition
Honorable Mention
Statement:
A Woman, Phenomenally? collects? photographic portraits that feature subjects who can be classified generally as “women of color” despite the specifics of their identity. The images react to a history of photographic representation of people of color by focusing on how identity is constructed. Through a collaborative process with each woman, an environment is fabricated that empowers each subject to create an idealized image of herself that reclaims agency in “performing the other.” The photographic portraits are presented within contextualizing multi-media installations,creating site specific environments that reference domestic space through cultural signifiers and decor elements recalled from my own memories of a fluid definition of home. Custom made decor items such as wallpaper, or a decorative screen wall, are paired with readymade objects and both real and artificial plants to extend the photographic plane and provide a pathway for the viewer to more deeply access the narratives of the women depicted. The confluence of image and installation serve to mirror the ambiguous social space that the subjects navigate in reality, as informed by their multi-ethnic/multi-cultural identities.
Bio:
Tiffany Smith?is a visual artist who uses photography, video, design, and installation to create conceptually based work focused on identity, cultural ambiguity, and representation; particularly within minority communities. Her work examines individual narratives pulled from an array of multicultural influences, derived from her upbringing between Miami, Florida, Nassau, Bahamas, and Jamaica, and molded by her current home of Brooklyn, NY. Smith’s practice searches for new perspectives on dominant historical narratives and aims to provide insight into issues surrounding communities and how they are formed, defined, and identified.
Smith received a BA in Photography from Savannah College of Art and Design and an MFA in Photo, Video and Related Media from School of Visual Arts, NY. She has been written about in The New York Times, Hyperallergic, and featured on pdnonline and cbsnews.com. She has exhibited at The National Gallery of Jamaica during the 2014 Jamaica Biennial, Photoville 2015, New York, International Photo Festival, Leiden, Netherlands, Photo NOLA, New Orleans, and Gateway Project Spaces/Project for Empty Space, Newark, NJ. Most recently, she was the recipient of a Marcus Garvey Park Alliance Grant to produce her first outdoor public art piece for Flux Art Fair, Harlem.
Artist’s website: www.tiffanysmithphoto.com