3rd Cayman Islands Biennial - National Gallery of the Cayman Islands

Elizabeth Paige Smith exhibits her newest work, Searching for Sparrow, at the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands from May 31st, 2023 to September 29th, 2023.

Elizabeth Paige Smith’s immersive video installation delves into the wellspring of memory as a compelling source of creative inspiration. Providing a poetic storyline, the fragmented form speaks to the implicit tensions between reality and the scattered recollections of subjective experience. Interweaving the journeys of three teenagers filmed on location in Grand Cayman, the artist portrays the parallel storylines of her principal protagonists - transporting viewers to the summer of 2004 before projecting forward almost twenty years in time. Meditating on themes of vulnerability, longevity and impermanence, ultimately nature itself emerges as the primary character in Smith’s compelling visual narrative.

Smith is an artist based both in Venice Beach, California, and Grand Cayman. With a bachelor’s in Fine Art from the University of Kansas School of Fine Arts, Smith has designed commissioned furniture pieces for numerous high-profile clients. Following a a prolific career within the field of design, in 2009, she decided to focus on the development of her new multi-disciplinary practice and has since sought to transform herself and her work. Following her creative intuition, she explores contrasting methodologies to convey the experience, magnitude, and rawness of primal emotions. Her work has been featured in the NGCI exhibition, Pop & the Popular (2022). -WH

“Organized under the title Conversations with the Past - In the Present Tense, the theme of this Biennial takes as its starting point the ways in which history continues to reverberate in the present. Reflecting on the role the past plays in shaping both personal and collective identity, the exhibition considers the multi-faceted nature of Caymanian culture by seeking to initiate conversations around our common understanding of its various social, political, and artistic legacies. The premise for this exhibition draws inspiration from the writings of cultural theorist Stuart Hall, who defined identity not only as a matter of ‘being’ but of ‘becoming’, ‘belonging as much to the future as it does to the past’. This model of identity encourages a variety of creative re-interpetations of the subject. including the ways in which our individual and collective sense of self is shaped by the interplay of history, memory, and subjective experience. Facilitating engagement with topical themes and subject matter, the biennial lastly seeks to encourage constructive dialogue among artists and audiences, providing a platform for affirmative and thought-provoking conversations.” National Gallery of the Cayman Islands

Behind the scenes… Elizabeth on location in her pop-up island studio editing Searching for Sparrow in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.