Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Joy Field
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy
Joy Field
Sumer
Waihirere Lane
(Spring Street access lane)
Tauranga CBD
Aotearoa (New Zealand)
2 October – 6 November 2021
Appearing ethereal and cloud-like, the drawings, with their layered gestural marks, oscillate and swirl. Whilst abstract they suggest space and form. Not landscapes, least not in the traditional sense—there is no horizon and the depth of field is shallow. Yet, with no hard edges or boundaries—other than the paper upon which the marks reside—they do not register as interiors either. The spaces intimated are instead something more akin to a garden, or a bower; an external expanding space, but one that is at the same time cloistered, intimate and in reach.
The works by Sarah Smuts-Kennedy are documents of a series of scripted automatic actions undertaken by the artist in her studio over the past year; expanding upon a project that she first commenced during her time as a McCahon House Artist in Residence in 2016. Following intuition and meditative practices, the works function as expressions of the artist’s desire to reveal fields of energy. Smuts-Kennedy describes them as Joy Fields—images which embody the positive joyful life-giving energy of a given moment, space or time. These works reflect her priority in balancing in the forces of syntropy and entropy, within artistic and creative endeavours, hers and also others (as within living systems, or life as a whole).
— Sumer (exhibition text)
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Joy Field. Installation view, Sumer, Tauranga, October 2021
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Joy Field – Breath Together Now – Karmic Pattern – 15th March, Sun Studio, 2021, soft pastel on smooth cotton rag 640 gsm, brass, 152.4 x 106.7 x 2.5 cm
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Joy Field – Breath Together Now – Karmic Pattern – 15th March, Sun Studio (detail), 2021, soft pastel on smooth cotton rag 640 gsm, brass, 152.4 x 106.7 x 2.5 cm
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Joy Field – Good Feelings Purple, January 24th, Sun Studio, 2021, soft pastel on smooth cotton rag 640 gsm, brass, 152.4 x 106.7 x 2.5 cm. Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Joy Field – Good Feelings Yellow #2 – January 25th, Sun Studio, 2021, soft pastel on smooth cotton rag 640 gsm, brass, 152.4 x 106.7 x 2.5 cm
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Joy Field – Good Feelings Purple, January 24th, Sun Studio, 2021, soft pastel on smooth cotton rag 640 gsm, brass, 152.4 x 106.7 x 2.5 cm
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Joy Field – Good Feelings Yellow #2 – January 25th, Sun Studio, 2021, soft pastel on smooth cotton rag 640 gsm, brass, 152.4 x 106.7 x 2.5 cm
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Joy Field – June 23rd, Sun Studio, 2021, soft pastel on smooth cotton rag 640 gsm, brass, 52.4 x 106.7 x 2.5 cm each panel; 152.4 x 340.4 x 2.5 cm overall
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Joy Field – June 23rd, Sun Studio, 2021, soft pastel on smooth cotton rag 640 gsm, brass, 52.4 x 106.7 x 2.5 cm each panel; 152.4 x 340.4 x 2.5 cm overall
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Joy Field. Installation view, Sumer, Tauranga, October 2021
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Joy Field – May 1st Sun Studio, 2021, soft pastel on smooth cotton rag 640 gsm, brass, 152.4 x 106.7 x 2.5 cm
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Joy Field – May 1st Sun Studio (detail), 2021, soft pastel on smooth cotton rag 640 gsm, brass, 152.4 x 106.7 x 2.5 cm
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Joy Field – May 5th, Sun Studio, 2021, soft pastel on smooth cotton rag 640 gsm, brass, 152.4 x 106.7 x 2.5 cm
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Joy Field – Journey home through the wilderness, Karmic Pattern – April 2nd Sun Studio, 2021, soft pastel on smooth cotton rag 640 gsm, brass, 152.4 x 106.7 x 2.5 cm
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Joy Field – May 1st Sun Studio, 2021, soft pastel on smooth cotton rag 640 gsm, brass, 152.4 x 106.7 x 2.5 cm
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Joy Field – June 23rd, Sun Studio (detail), 2021, soft pastel on smooth cotton rag 640 gsm, brass, 152.4 x 106.7 x 2.5 cm