In my article Outre, artist: SMITH, curator: Thérèse St-Gelais, published in May 2024 in the journal Ciel Variable (no. 126),
I explore the transgressive and experimental dimension of the Outre exhibition, presented at VOX, Centre de l’image contemporaine. Through this analysis, I highlight how SMITH questions the body, identity, and the limits of human experience through photography and video.
Article reference:
« Outre, artiste : SMITH, commissaire : Thérèse St-Gelais », in Ciel Variable, number 126
Outre (beyond, further): a word, an exploration
The title of the exhibition, Outre, refers to several meanings of the term: organic container, surpassing, addition. This polysemy lies at the heart of SMITH’s work, which seeks to transcend the boundaries of the body and perception.
The flagship work of the exhibition, created in partnership with the Observatoire de l’Espace, shows the artist aboard an Airbus A310 Zero G, experimenting with weightlessness in a quest for dematerialization and transformation..
The body in transition: a posthuman reading
Far from being a simple physical experience, this suspension takes place within a reflection on the notion of “trans”, discussed between SMITH and curator Thérèse St-Gelais. In this installation, gravity becomes a metaphor for biological and social constraints, while its absence embodies the possibility of mutation, of an identity in constant recomposition.
An aesthetic between science and poetry
The exhibition combines a scientific and sensorial approach:
- Immersive video allows the viewer to accompany the artist in their exploration of weightlessness.
- Photographs capture a state of suspension, between disappearance and rebirth, illustrating a threshold aesthetic unique to SMITH’s work.
- Sound recordings enrich the experience, integrating the voices of the artist and the curator, engaging a reflection on the transgression of physical and identity limits.
Through this article, I question how this exhibition challenges traditional frameworks of body representation, and how it fits into a broader discourse on posthumanism and the exploration of new states of being.