Statement
My work explores the fairytale-like aspects of mass media narratives of self-construction and self-perfection – dream jobs, true loves, and perfect families – and appropriates them to highlight the limitations, false constructions, and pleasures of these narratives. The major influences on my work are conceptual art, especially early video art and arte povera; performance; a craft approach to re-enactment and to the aesthetics of administration, service, and relation.
My work in video, tracing, and relational activities shares a common interest in managing people and getting them to “act like themselves” by re-enacting – for me and/or with me – these fairytale narratives. In my video work I make the passivity of the fairytale narrative active by staging and watching publicly-performed re-enactments of their models of self-construction and social interaction. I highlight and exploit the gaze of the camera – mine and mass media’s – by addressing it directly, turning private actions and experience into public performance. I seek to create a sense of invited voyeurism in my video work – I want the viewers of, and the participants in, my videos to know that they are supposed to be watching.
In the tracings, I work with craft and re-enactment in technique, process, and content. The tracings are originally produced as tracing on paper. I then re-trace them onto vellum, using the paper thereby as a “negative.” The whole process becomes a handmade, replicating procedure. Formally and substantively, the tracings reframe the fairytale narratives found in cultural icons, local news, pictures found on social networking sites, magazines, and internet forwards. By working with fairytale narratives in this way, I document and appropriate their influence on the way that the mass media “screen” functions as a bank of memory that structures the stories we tell ourselves about our lives.
In the Dream Job Series, I take personal and publicly constructed expectations about career and success and make them real for one day.
Using a hybrid craft and administrative approach, I try to imagine the most fun and publicly interactive jobs I could actually do, and then I find a space to work those jobs. The performance of these ephemeral, pleasurable jobs re-enacts the fairytale narrative, and also incorporates elements of administration, service, and relational aesthetics, in that the participants act as both a focus group for the business and its product and as collaborators in that business.
My work explores the fairytale-like aspects of mass media narratives of self-construction and self-perfection – dream jobs, true loves, and perfect families – and appropriates them to highlight the limitations, false constructions, and pleasures of these narratives. The major influences on my work are conceptual art, especially early video art and arte povera; performance; a craft approach to re-enactment and to the aesthetics of administration, service, and relation.
My work in video, tracing, and relational activities shares a common interest in managing people and getting them to “act like themselves” by re-enacting – for me and/or with me – these fairytale narratives. In my video work I make the passivity of the fairytale narrative active by staging and watching publicly-performed re-enactments of their models of self-construction and social interaction. I highlight and exploit the gaze of the camera – mine and mass media’s – by addressing it directly, turning private actions and experience into public performance. I seek to create a sense of invited voyeurism in my video work – I want the viewers of, and the participants in, my videos to know that they are supposed to be watching.
In the tracings, I work with craft and re-enactment in technique, process, and content. The tracings are originally produced as tracing on paper. I then re-trace them onto vellum, using the paper thereby as a “negative.” The whole process becomes a handmade, replicating procedure. Formally and substantively, the tracings reframe the fairytale narratives found in cultural icons, local news, pictures found on social networking sites, magazines, and internet forwards. By working with fairytale narratives in this way, I document and appropriate their influence on the way that the mass media “screen” functions as a bank of memory that structures the stories we tell ourselves about our lives.
In the Dream Job Series, I take personal and publicly constructed expectations about career and success and make them real for one day.
Using a hybrid craft and administrative approach, I try to imagine the most fun and publicly interactive jobs I could actually do, and then I find a space to work those jobs. The performance of these ephemeral, pleasurable jobs re-enacts the fairytale narrative, and also incorporates elements of administration, service, and relational aesthetics, in that the participants act as both a focus group for the business and its product and as collaborators in that business.
Education
M.F.A. Visual Arts, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL (2008)
B.F.A. Photography, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO (2005)
Curatorial Projects
Reception Gallery (Chicago, IL), Reception (October 2009 - September 2010)
Selected Exhibitions
2010
Random House (Chicago, IL), "Origins"
Ohio University Seigfred Gallery (Athens, OH), "Rehearse, Rewind, Repeat: Photography, Video and Performance"
2009
Barbara & Barbara (Chicago, IL), "The Self Portrait"
Eel Space (Chicago, IL), Dream Job No. 2: Pie-Tastic "Speculative Ways of Living"
Eel Space (Chicago, IL), "Works on Paper"
Co-Prosperity Sphere (Chicago, IL), Dream Job No. 1: FIDO Trade Show "Version 9 Festival"
Links Hall (Chicago, IL), "When Does It or You Begin? Memory as Innovation"
2008
Athenaeum Theater/DANCE Chicago (Chicago, IL)
The Underscene (Chicago, IL), "Nothing to Do with a Red Pick-Up Truck"
DOVA Temporary Gallery (Chicago, IL), "One Brick Country by the Sea"
DOVA Temporary Gallery (Chicago, IL), "MFA Thesis Group Show"
Smart Museum of Art (Chicago, IL), "Adaption" (Collaboration with Catherine Sullivan and Collective ARTV 24103)
2006
The Moxie Art Theatre and Gallery (Springfield, MO)
The Outland Ballroom (Springfield, MO ), "Guerilla Tactics"
2005
Park Central Gallery (Springfield, MO), "Emerging Artists 2005" - Invitational
Pi Gallery (Kansas City, MO)
Spiva Center for the Arts (Joplin, MO), "Photo Spiva 2005" (National Juried Exhibition: Robert & Shana Park-Harrison)
Missouri State University (Springfield, MO), "Student Photographic Spring Exhibition"
Missouri State University (Springfield, MO), "BFA Exhibition"
Press
Trailer Pilot (May, 2010) Random House: Origins Review
Art Storage (October, 2009) Art Storage: Casey Smallwood
Proximity Magazine, Top Ten Links (August, 2009) Proximity Magazine
Between Bigwood and Brush, Artist Spotlight (July, 2008) Between Bigwood and Brush
Awards
Full Graduate Fellowship, Division of the Humanities, University of Chicago (2006-08)
Excellence in Photography Scholarship, Missouri State University (2005)
M.F.A. Visual Arts, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL (2008)
B.F.A. Photography, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO (2005)
Curatorial Projects
Reception Gallery (Chicago, IL), Reception (October 2009 - September 2010)
Selected Exhibitions
2010
Random House (Chicago, IL), "Origins"
Ohio University Seigfred Gallery (Athens, OH), "Rehearse, Rewind, Repeat: Photography, Video and Performance"
2009
Barbara & Barbara (Chicago, IL), "The Self Portrait"
Eel Space (Chicago, IL), Dream Job No. 2: Pie-Tastic "Speculative Ways of Living"
Eel Space (Chicago, IL), "Works on Paper"
Co-Prosperity Sphere (Chicago, IL), Dream Job No. 1: FIDO Trade Show "Version 9 Festival"
Links Hall (Chicago, IL), "When Does It or You Begin? Memory as Innovation"
2008
Athenaeum Theater/DANCE Chicago (Chicago, IL)
The Underscene (Chicago, IL), "Nothing to Do with a Red Pick-Up Truck"
DOVA Temporary Gallery (Chicago, IL), "One Brick Country by the Sea"
DOVA Temporary Gallery (Chicago, IL), "MFA Thesis Group Show"
Smart Museum of Art (Chicago, IL), "Adaption" (Collaboration with Catherine Sullivan and Collective ARTV 24103)
2006
The Moxie Art Theatre and Gallery (Springfield, MO)
The Outland Ballroom (Springfield, MO ), "Guerilla Tactics"
2005
Park Central Gallery (Springfield, MO), "Emerging Artists 2005" - Invitational
Pi Gallery (Kansas City, MO)
Spiva Center for the Arts (Joplin, MO), "Photo Spiva 2005" (National Juried Exhibition: Robert & Shana Park-Harrison)
Missouri State University (Springfield, MO), "Student Photographic Spring Exhibition"
Missouri State University (Springfield, MO), "BFA Exhibition"
Press
Trailer Pilot (May, 2010) Random House: Origins Review
Art Storage (October, 2009) Art Storage: Casey Smallwood
Proximity Magazine, Top Ten Links (August, 2009) Proximity Magazine
Between Bigwood and Brush, Artist Spotlight (July, 2008) Between Bigwood and Brush
Awards
Full Graduate Fellowship, Division of the Humanities, University of Chicago (2006-08)
Excellence in Photography Scholarship, Missouri State University (2005)
