Sable Elyse Smith - A recent exhibition at Carlos/Ishikawa, London, conjured an experience of being controlled within a carceral capitalist state.
It is 2020, 2.3 million Americans live inside prisons and at the centre of Sable Elyse Smith’s solo exhibition, ‘Or the Song Spilling Out’, stand two metal sculptures: Riot I and Pivot II (all works 2019). Both comprise six long rods, affixed via a plate to each of the faces of a central cube, from which they radiate in perfect symmetry. Each rod terminates in a circular disk, riveted in four places. The forms have an institutional quality and, in fact, the sculptures reference standard-issue prison furniture.
“8033 Days” (2018)
digital c-print, suede, artist frame
48 x 40 in