Title: Drawings by Clare Smith, with an accompanying text by Simon Bill
Date: 2-3 July 2022
Location: Smart Gallery Dover,
Curated by Nicolas Deshayes and Joanna Jones
Artist’s notes
On show was a selection of my Chemo-day drawings from 2019-2020, drawings from Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai and from Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors a 1965 Ukrainian film by Soviet-Armenian filmmaker, Sergei Parajanov, based on the novel by Ukrainian writer, Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky. There was also a series or “journal’ of self portaits on found paper to turn through in an old Chinese book.
So much more to absorb and think about than there was time for in a single gallery visit.
Gorgeous, moving work
It was interesting to hear what you were saying about the drawings. When I was looking at them without any context I thought they were a commentary on the Second World War. It occurred to me on the way home what a profound impact the war must have had on Kurosawa. I wonder how much his films were conscious and unconscious responses to that? It’s fascinating how those drawings have made me see something very different in his films which had not been noticed before.