Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Qube, Oswestry
28 February – 25 March
Reviewed by:
‘Notion Nanny’ is a project by US-based artist Allison Smith in collaboration with curatorial team B+B, Sarah Carrington and Sophie Hope. Smith’s exhibition at Qube is the latest in a series of UK residencies that have seen the artist also working from bases in Cumbria and London. At each venue Smith’s calling card announces her arrival: “Along country lanes and urban cross-roads, an itinerant apprentice offers Ideas and Articles of all sorts Traditional and Revolutionary, abundantly crafted in Exchange for skilful Demonstrations and sociable Company.”
Smith’s exhibitions can perhaps be best described as a kind of performative installation providing an evolving site-specific display aimed at reflecting the processes and outcomes of the overall project, as well as her particular time in Oswestry. It creates an interactive context for making and dialogue, featuring ongoing projects, meetings and work with makers, encounters with visitors, and a wide range of other interactive events.
The centrepiece of the exhibition is Smith’s lovingly sculpted life-size peddler doll, or ‘notion nanny’, an enlarged recreation of the miniature figures popularly displayed under glass domes in British and American households during the Victorian era. Her appropriation of this romanticised, decorative figurine is both a literal and symbolic re-claiming of history. From tip to toe the magnified doll reveals and provides an entry point into Smith’s multi-faceted practice. The bonnet, head, hands and costume have all been made in practical dialogue with specialist makers, as has the basket she carries – the vital ever-changing repository filled with the artist’s and other makers’ wares.
The doll thus acts as a kind of self-portrait: reflecting the artist’s concerns and practices, she is a ‘kindred-spirit’ from a previous age. She is also a trader of skills, objects and ideas, a storyteller, a news-bringer, an independent thinker and, of course, an itinerant. As such, she poses a threat to conventional values and is liable to be viewed with suspicions that stereotype her as uncontrollable, disruptive, subversive, and of possibly ‘loose’ morals and a potential spy. Smith’s own description of ‘Notion Nanny’ as “traditional and revolutionary” is at the heart of the project. She describes herself and the project as being driven by a deeply felt sense of urgency in the face of dangerous, potentially apocalyptic times, imploring us to move beyond mere nostalgia and engage critically with the politics of the past. The project urges us to consider the vital role of contemporary artists and makers in this socially engaged process.
The ‘Notion Nanny’ project stands very comfortably at Qube, an organisation with a growing and deserved reputation for its innovative arts, health, social and educational work. Qube, with its diverse audience and user base, should be congratulated for having been a perfect host to the artist’s interests, concerns and practices. ‘Notion Nanny’ is a quite unique and remarkable project... and I hope Smith will return to the UK on many future occasions.
For further details and the latest news about the project visit www.craftspace-touring.co.uk
Writer detail:
Adrian Plant is curator at Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery.
Venue detail:
Qube
Queens Courtyard, Oswald Road, OSWESTRY SY11 1RB
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