LET THE SPACE WRAP AROUND YOU by GREGG SMITH

“Let the space wrap around you" leads the reader along the artist’s daily trajectories around the 18th and 19th arrondissements of Paris, presenting objects and situations which have either been noticed in passing, or installed by the artist. The artist’s practice moves freely between performance, painting, photography and filmmaking and in this book these diverse media are presented without clear differentiation. The ambiguous identity of these different images, part found/part artifice, leaves it open for the reader to decide their own path and also begs a fresh appraisal of the significance we place on our presence in our immediate physical reality. The images are accompanied by the text, ‘Malleable tracks (from L’Avventura to Die Antwoord)’, which compares Antonioni’s film L’Avventura (1960) with the Youtube punk/rap phenomenon, Die Antwoord. Through an exploration of the repercussions of Die Antwoord’s fictitious identity in the band’s hometown of Cape Town, compared to the bands reception on online platforms, the text explores the relationship between local culture and the way in which the individual finds meaning and engagement in the global media realm. The text argues that whilst the potential for vulnerability and manipulation have undoubtedly increased in society in recent years, the individual has evolved sophisticated skills of navigating reality, which the protagonists and viewers of Antonioni’s films had yet to attain.

LET THE SPACE WRAP AROUND YOU by GREGG SMITH
Artworks, text and design by Gregg Smith
Editor Delphine Bedel
98 pages, 17x24 cm, English
Four-color process, softbound
Edition 09/2013
ISBN 978-90-821182-0-9
With the support of
ECAV and the Service de la Culture de l’Etat du Valais (CH).