1. Dianne Smith
www.diannesmithart.com
http://remix.diannesmithart.com
info@diannesmithart.com
Artist Statement
Initially, I created what I thought I was supposed to based upon how the world defined
me. Today my art surpasses who I am as a hyphenated identity: African American,
Belizean, and woman. I had to go deep within myself to find and express the real me.
Now I take license from that place inside of me that is
beyond my race, gender, and ethnicity.
Granting myself permission to hear a particular criticism
helped me to realize that freedom is wisdom. Once I was
able to incorporate criticism into my artistic way of seeing
and being, I experienced a new emergence in my work. It
was pure, original, and undeniably me. While I had no
connection to abstract art, what came out of me was honest
versus planned from some outer paradigm.
I realized that my mission was to encourage my audience
to see themselves as well as others internally rather than
externally. I use textures, tones, shades, colors, and strokes
to engage my audience, inviting them to explore and embrace their innermost thoughts
and feelings.
The process of finding my voice as an abstract painter was organic, just as it was with
my three-dimensional work. I create assemblages
constructed with any item that would ordinarily be
thrown away. The sculptures are made with everyday
refuse and whatever (art) materials I have. I find ways to
bridge conventional material and my trash. Or, I may
deconstruct an existing piece and repurpose it into
another work of art.
One day, while cleaning my kitchen along with a
conversation with a friend about our childhood, I began
to pay attention to the size of my trashcan. What occurred
to me was how large it was for one person. The next day I
swapped it out for a much smaller one. However, that did
not satisfy my preoccupation with waste. I became
consumed with what I threw away. Suddenly, I began saving things like: junk mail, bottles,

2. cans, old clothes, painting rags, files, newspapers, packaging, etc.
These (otherwise) discarded materials became part of my inner dialogue--a metaphor for how I
view the world. Identity: race, gender, religion, inequity and consumption in a global climate
filled with economic despair are all interrelated. Yet, my personhood defines my relationship
with each one. Just as it defines the relationship I have with the items I use in my sculptures.
Most often, a force that is beyond me informs and guides my creative expression. I am
called upon to create my art in response to the events, circumstances and times of the
world around me.
Whether it is the plight of women and children around the world or the tragedy of a
natural disaster or a conversation with a friend or some historical context, I am able to
Flickr: Surface and Soul

3. Within Shadows Cast
Within Shadows Cast is a site specific installation constructed out of butcher paper for
Piedmont Arts. The paper is crunched, crumpled, rolled, twisted, interlocked, woven
and manipulated into the space. It’s formations and use of light creates patterns of
shadows, as well as contrast of light and dark. These are just some of the many qualities
that draw me to the use of this material.
In the summer of 2011 is when I really
began using butcher paper as part of my
art practice. I was commissioned to create a
work of art in one of the houses on the
historic Governor’s Island in New York
City. The artwork was to pay homage to the
history of African Americans in New York.
Not wanting to do a literal piece, I focused
on a site-specific installation that would
embody the spirit of the enslaved Africans.
I chose this particular material for all that I
mentioned as well as because of it’s
strength, flexibility, and fragility. I began thinking that these were perhaps some of the
characteristics of the enslaved Africans. Thus the paper is a metaphor for their spirit
and deplorable treatment.
Butcher paper is used for many things and tossed away once we are done. Wrapping
meat, craft, shipping and the packing of merchandise are just some of its uses. When we
pack things we often push them down, bunching the paper to fill corners, trying to get
everything tightly secured, just as the enslaved Africans were packed onto cargo ships
in the Middle Passage.
Within Shadows Cast is not only a continued homage to enslaved Africans but also it is
meant to question our ancestral, historical, cultural and political past, as well as the
possibilities for our future. Look at the wrinkles in the paper, think about the wrinkles
in the skin of the elders in your families: What stories do they tell? What memories do
they hold? Look at the ways in which the paper intertwines: How are you connected to
your ancestral legacy? Look at the shadows on the walls: What are your hidden truths?
What is the imprint of your personhood on humanity?
Flickr: Within Shadows Cast

4. Where Are We Now?
It is an honor to have been asked to create this site-specific installation in collaboration with
Reverend Thurman Echols. The installation is a unique blend of his Civil Rights memorabilia
(along with his periodicals and photos that are pre and post), personal photos from both of us,
audio, video and a (select) few of my sculptural pieces.
The concept was to create an installation that not only pays tribute to the Civil Rights movement
from a Black History perspective but from that of an American History as well. Incorporating
personal photos as well as other forms of symbolism speaks to the paradox between the struggle
for identity, equality, liberty, justice, humanity and
the necessities of everyday life.
For instance, on the plantations the enslaved
gathered and found ways to communicate….
The Juba dance was originally an African-
American plantation dance, brought from West
Africa by slaves. They performed it during their
gatherings when no rhythm instruments were
allowed because Slave owners feared that secret
codes would be hidden in the drumming. Master
Juba (William Henry Lane) was a free black man
and the most famous Juba dancer. He was also one
of the first black performers in the United States
and credited for introducing Tap to the country.
In tribute to this important part of our history the
video footage is of legendary dancers Cora La
Redd, Peg Leg Bates, the Nicholas Brothers,
steppers, and contemporary street tapers. An
image of Master Juba hangs above the video
screen. Their movements are another form of
chronicling our history. It is important to
understand that we can exam our past or history through multiple modalities.
As such, the words of two of Americas most celebrated folklorist, anthropologist, poet, social
activist, novelist, playwright, columnist and author was important to help contextualize the
installation. Handwritten wall text of Langston Hughes’, I, Too, Am America, is subtly interwoven
throughout the installation, and an audio reading of Zora Neal Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were
Watching God, by actor Ruby Dee is heard looping over the installation.
As I was flushing out ideas for the installation I was certain I would use this particular audio
being read by one of our National treasures. I thought the story both beautiful and adequate.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. wrote in the afterword, Their Eyes Were Watching God is primarily concerned

5. “with the project of finding a voice, with language as an instrument of injury and salvation, of
selfhood and empowerment.”
I, Too, Am America begins with Hughes claiming that he, too “sings America,” after he makes
reference to skin color by noting that he is “the darker brother,” he goes on to say that he is sent
“to eat in the kitchen when company comes” as if he were a slave being sent away. However, the
poor treatment does not stop him from laughing and growing strong. He imagines a future in
which he is no longer sent to the kitchen, in which no one would dare to call him unequal. They
will see him as beautiful and "be ashamed" of their previous prejudice. The poem ends with
Hughes writing, again, that he (and, therefore, his race) is indeed American.
The installation uses multiple lenses to look at America today through its racial history by posing
the question: Where Are We Now?
In closing, I’d like to thank Piedmont Arts for the opportunity to open this installation the very
weekend of Dr. Martin Luther King’s 83rd birthday.
Flickr: Where Are We Now?