Sjors Smit (1997) graduated in 2021 from Sint Joost School of Art & Design as an autonomous visual artist and lives and works in Rotterdam. Through his multidisciplinary practice, he mainly focuses on creating spatial installations that seek dialogue with their immediate surroundings. Exploring various ways the course of time can be experienced is an important source of inspiration for his artistic process.
By examining different metaphors that influence the interpretation of past events, he reconstructs elements from distinctive processes that apply a poetic charge to a specific location. In doing so, he invites the viewer to see the relevant space from an archival perspective. His work arises within a tension between construction and destruction, between desire and memory; consisting of attempts to connect the environments we live in with an existent timeline.
Palimpsest (2023) - During my residency at Ongekend with Siem de Boer, we started out with anecdotal stories of fleeting encounters with scapes and places. These stories, predominantly focussing on traces and architecture, caused an urge to find a working method that incorporates folklore with real-life spaces. We started a process in which discarded material, mostly wood and other fragments of former interiors, were used to show histories of multiple interventions.
Architecture: Abstract Palimpsest is a re-editing process in which the existing layers of objects or traces were covered or removed, partially or completely. As the architectural heritage can be understood as an accumulation of layers, thus palimpsest could effectively modify the interpretation of it.
The materials were put together, mixed with the interior of the exhibition space, and engraved with fictional marks and illustrations showing an accumulation of traces varying author, time, and place.
On in/under (Waterway) (2022) - The exhibition Murky Waters & Clear Sights tries to sharpen the view on hidden perspectives, narratives and objects within Maritime histories, and specifically the collection of the Museum aan de Aa. From this collection, the artists each chose a historical artifact, which then served as the basis and starting point for a deep dive in archival and artistic research. This resulted in various videos, installations, performances and other artworks, which offer a gloomy perspective on traveling, hiding or sleeping in the murky waters.
During my residency at het Resort, this time taking place at the historical ship 'Pelikaan' in Groningen, I wanted to design two installations that emphasize the archaeological qualities in relation to the maintenance of the canals.
The dark, inaccessible canals that connect the city stimulated my fascination with the invisible. These logistical corridors slowly collect and digest the objects and stories that end up on the bottom. The second work consisted of an installation that took place on deck and moved between the ship and shore. Attached to a wooden crane hung a sculpture that was hoisted above the water surface every so often. Due to the effect of the water and low temperature, I saw the sculpture slowly weather and crumble. The reconstructed wreckage of an earlier work I made a year ago was an attempt to place an integral part of my practice on the bottom of the Groningen city canals.
On in/under (Waterway) (2022) - The exhibition Murky Waters & Clear Sights tries to sharpen the view on hidden perspectives, narratives and objects within Maritime histories, and specifically the collection of the Museum aan de Aa. From this collection, the artists each chose a historical artifact, which then served as the basis and starting point for a deep dive in archival and artistic research. This resulted in various videos, installations, performances and other artworks, which offer a gloomy perspective on traveling, hiding or sleeping in the murky waters.
During my residency at het Resort, this time taking place at the historical ship 'Pelikaan' in Groningen, I wanted to design two installations that emphasize the archaeological qualities in relation to the maintenance of the canals. The first work came to exist after I arranged that a diver would go under the ship to film the hull from the bottom's perspective. The amount of sediment in the water, in combination with light from the surface created a gradient of color with the silhouette of the ship fading in and out. With this work I wanted to complete the image of the ship by drawing attention to the underwater exterior of the steel structure we were exhibiting on.
Zonder Titel (Zuidwest) (2022) - During ‘Ontdek de Nacht’ four artists respond to the work of Pieter Laurens Mol around the exhibition Nachtvlucht in the Stedelijk Museum Breda. The project, in collaboration with KOP and Stedelijk Museum Breda, focuses on placing work in public space that was on display in the months of September and October 2022.
During my research in the city archives, I detected a parallel between the ritual burning of Mol his works after his first exhibition and the Breda city fire in 1534. The former city center built of wood and thatch went up in flames, after which the current cityscape was built directly over the ashes. By partially breaking down the work with fire during construction, I tried to create an image that reflects the historical foundations on which the city of Breda is based.
Crushed/Coarse (2022) - In August 2021 I got selected for the Master Apprentice Program organized by Kunstpodium T which resulted in a group of five diverse artists with varying academic backgrounds. Mizuki Kimura, Barbara Schouten, Wieneke Bremer, and I were placed under the guidance of 'master' Jasper Griepink; an interdisciplinary artist that works creating alternative ecologies and uses speculative storytelling as a foundation through his research.
While we were still in anticipation of where the collaborative process would bring us, Jasper invited and inspired us to start off with a series of writing exercises using 'Worldbuilding', a writing method that is often used in creating science fiction. By sharing short fictional stories, often written from a context related to our practice, a collection of chapters arose which started to shape the contours of our own fictional world. From this place, at the time only existing in words.
Almost 6000 kilos of mixed granulate, housing several waifs and strays from previous works and experiments, became a terrain that corresponded with the soundscape I designed. Inspired by the way in which sound can suggest spatial sensation, the work consists of an attempt to depict strata from a fictional world. Inside the landscape, a resonance box that housed a subwoofer occasionally caused small landslides that changed the surface over time. and relevant critique of contemporary life showed us the urgency within fictional speculation and its resonance with reality.
Desire Line (2022) - In Gallery De Bouwput, Sjors Smit, Hanna-Lee Daled, and Jesse van Epenhuijsen showed new works inspired by the space in- and around the creative breeding ground located in Amsterdam Slotermeer.
The exhibition was an inquiry on notions of change in public space. It didn’t just display everyday life but reflected on urgent realities based on non-fictional situations and sites. It showcased new works of all three artists.
They all set out and used walking as an investigative method to explore the surrounding space of the Gallery. This resulted in a dynamic presentation where a multitude of spatial arrangements came together as a whole. It provoked a dialogue to look and walk in places you normally would pass by.
Op Staal (2021) - In collaboration with Niels Goos, Eef Schoolmeesters, Marit van der Heijden, Loes van Reijmersdal and Roos Vogels a workperiod took place in which local history and archival information was a key element in the creation of new work. Organised by AIR van Gogh Zundert and Stedelijk Museum Breda a mix of recently graduated and more experienced artists held a group show at 'De Stadsgalerij' called BIJ/NA.
The former military stables were the subject of our site-specific research. The exhibition space was in a slight state of disrepair and was overloaded with drill holes, notes and markings from the previous exhibitors. Following and interpreting these traces prompted me to continue looking under the building. Searching for material information and artifacts, I started digging a hole that ended up being 3.5 meters deep. Here I came across an old foundation that was separate from the current stables. I decided to stop digging and cast a functionless form in concrete next to the foundation. Here I added copied elements from the interior of the stables. To this day, the fictional foundation is buried under the former stables in Breda.
2.70m (2021) - In between stories, a small room finds itself underneath the stairs, connecting the hallway with the kitchen. Since I can remember it has been filled with old coats, scratched records, and knotted bags filled with winter jackets. While the stairs wear down over time, the small room seems to remain standstill.
I used the old storage as a casting mold, to visualize the slumbering room in the shape of an object. The sculpture was placed in my old bedroom.
This work was part of my graduation project '2.70m', a site-specific exhibition at the house I was born in Dordrecht.
Spatial Exercise (2021) - A 1:1 field of the house I grew up in. This location-based research attempts to revisit the physical ratio and materiality within a contour of this rather sentimental object.
Trapgang (2019) - In collaboration with Fenna Koot, Jesse van Epenhuijsen, and Nadia van Essen. Shown at manifestation 'SHIFT' at de Fabriek in Eindhoven.
