Isobel Smith lives and works in London and East Sussex, UK.
She completed her MA in Sculpture / Performance at Royal College of Art in 2017.

Making the subconscious visible …

‘Performance is at the root of my practice. I explore my surroundings viscerally, often by means of ridiculous or desperate actions designed to erase my rational head and reconnect with the nonhuman world, both external and within myself. Sometimes working with familiar everyday objects, or in nature and the countryside, to challenge anthropocentrism and attempt to get closer, merge with the materials and look out of the eyes of these strange hybrid forms.

Modern human conventions would have us walking down the middle of our lives, not stopping to sniff or lick it, or roll and rub up against it. Age and gender further close these norms and I’m passionate about using performance and sculpture to kick them up and shake off my tamed and civilised self.’

Making art spells – between the eyes, between the legs, between worlds.
In the sliding flux
between ‘familiar’ and ‘other’, dead and alive.

At the slippery edge
where 1 + 1 = 3
and ‘+’ is the gap between, it is sex, desire, revulsion,
the miraculous and the monstrous.
The breath that jumps in and gives life.

I might be a witch.
So burn me.