Bob and Roberta Smith
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Bob and Roberta Smith
(°1963, UK)
Bob and Roberta Smith live and work in London. Past shows at Kusseneers Gallery have involved performances, a large installation made with personalised signs on scrap materials and wall based paintings on wooden panels. Smith’s DIY approach appropriates the languages of folk, punk and the alternative protest movements to personalise political sloganeering.
Bob and Roberta Smith’s work cannot be reduced to one genre. Often it takes the shape of hobbies; music, cooking or DIY which is then combined with a subversive humour. Bob and Roberta Smith attempt to demolish established values and respected authorities and like most humour it is to do with humiliation. Smith challenges the orthodoxies that you are taught at school and which he believes beats the creativity out of you.
Bob and Roberta Smith think it’s moral to be absurd and that embracing absurd things is somehow an area of sanity. Much of the work manifests itself in performance, with strong ideas of participation or of the participatory positions similar to those used by the Fluxus in the 1960’s
exhibition view, group show ’the proof of the pudding is in the eating’ #1
‘Everything is made’, 2015, signwriterspaint on recycled wood, 21,2 x 30,6 cm
diary page, ‘4 Februari 2007, Roberta, my sister phoned’ signwriters enamel on recycled timberwood, 2008, 220 x 236 cm
‘The Captains Journal of the Voyage of the Human Being’, signwriters paint on recycled wood, dimensions variable, performance with Leigh Clarke at the Museum of Breda, 2007
Bob and Roberta Smith, sitting in his sculpture ‘The Live Forever Windmill For Eternal Life’ on the booth of Kusseneers gallery at The Solo Project, art fair in Basel, 2008
Bob and Roberta Smith on the booth of Kusseneers gallery at The Solo Project, art fair in Basel, 2008
‘I Believe in Martin Luther King’, 2003, enamel on panel and lightbulbs, 124 x 124 x 5,5 cm / 48.8 x 48.8 x 2.2 in
exbibition view ‘Arte per Tutti – Art for All – the placards of Bob and Roberta Smith’ at Kusseneers gallery, 2016
exbibition view ‘Arte per Tutti – Art for All – the placards of Bob and Roberta Smith’ at Kusseneers gallery, 2016
‘art makes people powerful’, 2015, screenprint on paper, 59,5 x 42 cm, edition 50
exbibition view ‘Arte per Tutti – Art for All – the placards of Bob and Roberta Smith’ at Kusseneers gallery, 2016
exbibition view ‘Arte per Tutti – Art for All – the placards of Bob and Roberta Smith’ at Kusseneers gallery, 2016
‘The Images from Picasso’s Mobile Phone’, 2008, signwriters enamel and collage on recycled timberwood
‘The Captains Journal of the Voyage of the Human Being’, 2007, signwriters paint on recycled wood, dimensions variable
‘Don’t Believe in Yourself’, signwriters enamel on recycled timberwood, 2009
‘Because I’m Not Worth It’, signwriters enamel on recycled timberwood, 2009
Diary page “24 December, I phoned up the guy at the gallery”, 2007, signwriters anamel on recycled timberwood, 128 x 325 cm
‘Prison Sentences Not Bonuses’, 2009, signwriters enamel on found object, 79 x 54 cm
Thought Examination, Mme Lin Ye Qun, 2008, painted bronze (unique piece), 50 x 30 x 24 cm
Bob and Roberta Smith (right) with Ermias Kifleyesus (left) at the opening of the exhibition at Kusseneers gallery
Thought Examination, Wang Guang-mei (Liu Shao-chi’s wife), 2008, painted bronze (unique piece), 39 x 36 x 26 cm