Artefact: Sally Smart
Artist Sally Smart creates collages, assemblages, performances and installations, all of which centre a legacy of feminist art-making while giving forgotten histories material form.
Image credit: Sally Smart, Duet (Dancer Brut), 2023, dye sublimation printed textile, 155 x 173 cm. Courtesy the artist
One of Australia’s leading contemporary artists, Sally Smart’s practice engages identity politics, ideas relating to the body, the home and history, and the rich legacy of feminist art-making. Smart is recognised internationally for her complex and intricate collages, assemblages, collaborative dance performances and largescale installations. A process-oriented artist, Smart often presents narratives that subvert gender hierarchies through the deconstruction and reconstruction of historical events, linking politics to the traditional activities of women in unexpected ways. Her work is labour intensive and speaks to time spent making and doing, reflecting a long engagement with avant-garde modernist women artists such as Sonia Delaunay, Hannah Höch, Lyubov Popova and Sophie Taeuber – all exponents of work with performance, collage and textiles and a lineage of practice that Smart also shares. ... Subscribe to read this article in full
