ANJ SMITH

Several works on view in the exhibition feature solitary female figures immersed in water. Vibratingwith an atmosphere of impending tempest, these paintings evoke rising tides and by extension, hint atthe prospect of an approaching natural disaster. Despite their nakedness and seeming vulnerability,the figures appear to have innovated within their apocalyptic surroundings. Smith has said that shesees water as both distinct and malleable, specific and universal, and––like her figures––neithermonolithic nor fixed. Above all, the artist aims to express the complexity of dwelling in a human bodyand how it feels from the inside out to exist against the backdrop of ongoing toxicity.

The pose of the figure in But Tell it Slant (2023) calls to mind the famous goddess central toBotticelli’s The Birth of Venus (1485–86). In contrast to Botticelli’s celebration of love and beauty,Smith’s painting refuses to offer a clear narrative; its title refers to another familiar masterpiece of thepast, Emily Dickinson’s poem Tell All the Truth, wherein the reader is advised to tell the truth, butobliquely and incrementally. Smith’s painting exemplifies her interest in playing with ideas of mimicry,veiling and obfuscation, accounting for her tactic of leaving sections of composition more legiblethan others. The viewer can only ‘read’ the wealth of detail in her work––and thereby discover whatis being revealed, what is being withheld––when the eye and brain are slowed, submitting to time.

Genre, perspective, time and gravity are fluid and unpredictable throughout Smith’s paintings,reflecting the uncertainties many are experiencing in this current moment––whether political, culturalor environmental. Thus, some of the large-scale landscape paintings on view in the exhibition, whiledevoid of human figures, are also portraits: profiles of ecological transition and the rewilding ofthe natural world. When seen from a distance, Intermittence (2022) appears as a straightforwardseascape, bleak and barren aside from a bright neon light reaching across the tempestuous sky.But as the viewer gazes into this work, details slowly emerge suggesting different geological epochshave left their mark on this place over many eras. Here, the sea is not a fluid body; instead, it isformed from plates of ice precariously layered like the tiles of an abandoned roof, having frozen andthawed repeatedly. Small marsupials leap and climb across newly formed vegetation, inhabiting anenvironment that was never meant for them. What appeared at first glance to be a vibrant ribbonof light is not a natural phenomenon but unfurls as a distress signal from far off in the distance,somewhere far beyond the horizon, a surviving remnant of human life.

On the occasion of this exhibition, Hauser & Wirth Publishers will release Anj Smith: DriftingHabitations, a catalogue of the artist’s most recent work. The publication, which can be preorderedat this link, features a conversation between psychologist Orna Guralnik and the artist, as well as apoetic intervention by author Claire-Louise Bennett. On Saturday, 11 November, Guralnik and Smithwill be in conversation at Hauser & Wirth’s 22nd Street location. For more information, including howto reserve space, please visit hauserwirth.com/events.