Backward Sidewalk Glance

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About Backward Sidewalk Glance

"Road Work Ahead" is an ongoing appropriated art series that explores the tension between written and non-verbal communication, utility and fashion. Smith uses discarded road signs as his initial canvas. He then carefully overlays stylized outlines of fashion-forward female figures. Strategically stripping away the paint below to reveal plywood patterns in the wood below or collaging elements on top. The canvas may become skin or clothing…effectively merging and blurring the distinction between object and subject. Through his Road Work Ahead series, Smith explores communication, interpretation and misinterpretation through a functional every day object – the road sign. A road sign may clearly spell out “Do Not Enter” or “Road Closed” yet is populated with women, brazenly, openly and often playfully disobeying the sign’s instructions. What was once clearly didactic is now meaningfully obscured. Through this series, Smith explores and shines a light upon what most men discover as adolescents: attempting to read ‘signs’ that women give is confounding at best. No means no. But, a glance over the shoulder? Come hither? Stay away? It’s unclear, yet clearly relatable to the male populace. Road Work Ahead with its bright orange backgrounds and simple black and white contrasts is immensely enjoyable at first glance, and upon closer contemplation slyly considers the intersection of authority and free will.