Stephanie Smith works one day a week with the department, primarily teaching into the fourth year. Stephanie has been working collaboratively with Eddie Stewart, as Smith/Stewart, since 1992. They have
shown widely in the UK and internationally [including solo shows at KunstmuseumLuzern; Portikus, Frankfurt; Chisenhale Gallery, London; Inverleith House,
Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh and group shows in San Francisco MOMA;
Kunstmuseum Bern; Kunstverein Hannover; KunstWerke, Berlin; MAC/VAL,
Paris]. Awards include: The Henry Moore Sculpture
Fellowship, The British School at Rome; SAC Creative Scotland Award. Their work
is represented in public collections in the UK, Europe, the USA and Japan:
including the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Arts Council
Collection, England and the Tate, London.
SMITH/STEWART's
fundamental concerns
revolve around human relations and what people are capable of doing to one
another, physically and psychologically. Central to this exploration is the body and its context and different kinds of media are
used to explore ideas of dislocation, separation and unity.
The
artists have always stated that they make ‘sculpture’ whilst simultaneously
challenging notions of what sculptural practice involves. Early pieces
(predominantly performance-to-camera video installations) involved the dual
interaction of a man and woman often in extreme situations requiring mutual
complicity and trust. Recent works have employed mechanised structures and
objects; architectural interventions; and performances utilising constructed
situations and specific groups of people.
"Through setting up a kind of poetic situation
constructed with materials and forms which challenge your movement through the
space, you're made more aware of how you move, your interaction with others and
how others exist around you - conscious only of the present".
