Sable Elyse Smith

Sable Elyse Smith’s interdisciplinary practice spans photography, painting, video, text, neon and sculpture. Often using language to highlight its performative aspect, the artist blends that which is political, public and personal to reveal institutional violence in the contexts of the carceral and court systems, correction facilities and racial injustices. Smith combines the imagery of mass incarceration with unexpected metaphors, such as an intimate touch of a lover, children’s colouring books or playgrounds. The contrast produced is at once uncanny and familiar: while not physically spoken of, the violence that Smith’s work reveals is entrenched, normalised in everyday public consciousness. By displaying the trauma of unseen, ignored narratives, the social commentary of Smith’s conceptual practice strives to find the missing language to speak of the unspoken.