Kathryn Smith (MSc, MAFA) b. Durban, 1975. Based in Liverpool, UK
Multidisciplinary visual artist, and qualified forensic artist, operating at the interface of the studio/lab, the archive/library and the museum/gallery
Director: serialworks / viz. forensic images
Photographed in Cape Town, March 2016 by Caroline McClelland
About KATHRYN SMITH
My practice is research-based, and characterised by strong curatorial interests, the photographic/screen image and the written word. My attention has always been lured by uncertainty, risk and experimentation, and my ideas shaped by constructions of truth and evidence (via the photograph, the document), time-based media (books, films, audio), alternative social histories and ethics of representation and display.
Since 1998, I have worked across institutional and independent spaces, producing a range of self-directed and commissioned, individual and collaborative exhibitions and publications, hosted by artist-run spaces, national and international institutions. Past partnerships have included The Trinity Session (1999-2004) and several curatorial projects with Clive van den Berg. Ongoing partnerships include Christian Nerf (various iterations since 2001) and Atlantic House (since 2013).
I have over 10 year's experience in tertiary education, including 10 years as senior lecturer and programme co-ordinator for undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Fine Arts at Stellenbosch University's Department of Visual Arts, where my roles included curriculum design and delivery for undergraduate studio practice and art theory, and postgraduate programme co-ordination and candidate supervision.
My work has been published and exhibited in over 20 countries, attracting critical recognition including the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art in 2004, and a number of awards, fellowships and grants. In 2012, i decided to pursue a longstanding interest in forensic processes and methods, completing an MSc Forensic Art at the University of Dundee's Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification/DJCAD.
I am currently a PhD research and graduate teaching assistant in Face Lab, a research unit at Liverpool John Moores University's School of Art & Design. Face Lab conducts craniofacial identification and depiction research and historical & forensic casework, under the direction and mentorship of Prof. Caroline Wilkinson. My doctoral research project, titled Laws of the Face, focuses on representations of the postmortem face after 1960.