Works on Paper 2021
Curated by Davina Barber & Laura Lopes
Joni Smith is a paper and installation artist working in Norwich. Impeccably handcrafted, Smith’s work encompasses drawing, paper cutting, painting and installation.
Joni enhances and re-imagines the perceptual mapping out of a landscape on paper, playfully using collage and cutting techniques to create new associations between different map locations. With boarders and divisions at the forefront of our thoughts in the current political climate, Joni asks her viewers to re-evaluate our positions as we enter a new technological era, where the idea of a ‘map’ is being reworked. Through her labour intensive process, as each piece takes shape, it is clear to see one world breaking down as another parallel one emerges.
Formosa is the old name for Taiwan, originally named by Portuguese sailors who called it “Illa Formosa”, meaning beautiful island. Its Antipodean counterpart is the province ‘Formosa’ on the boarder between Argentina and Paraguay & are the only antipodean locations to ever have had the same name at both ends. The work shows a white cut paper map, that is taken from a location in Taiwan. Running through it are gold leaf map lines, that are taken from the province of Formosa.
Umwelt is literally German for ‘environment’, usually translated as ‘self-centered world’. Organisms can have different umwelten, even though they share the same environment.