December 6 – 10, 2017
FlexSpace B, CICA Museum
Statement
se·cret
(ˈsēkrit/) noun
plural noun: secrets
1. Something that is kept or meant to be kept unknown or unseen by others. “a state secret”
| synonyms: | confidential matter, confidence, private affair; skeleton in the closet “he just can’t keep a secret” |
2. Something that is not properly understood; a mystery. “I’m not trying to explain the secrets of the universe in this book”
I have always been intrigued by the power of secrets. Keeping them seems to change us at a molecular level. There are many secrets in us, in the core of our souls.
This is a thread that runs through my work. The lives we are living are a manifestation of the secrets within and surrounding us. I explore the transformations inherent in keeping secrets.
We face external and internal threats from both keeping, and being kept from, secrets. Impacts from personal, national, global secrecy is imprinted on the very fabric of our world perceptions and being. Intentions others may have for mining our secrets exists on a continuum. At one end, they may seek with compassion and respect to understand cultural or individual mysteries. At the other they may strive with malice to undermine or even control our personal agency.
We learn early on in life to camouflage our secrets, however, they are as surely revealed by what we decide to display than by what we try to conceal.I want to explore the physical and mental power of secrets. The pain they give, the relief and even ecstasy we can feel when at last we are able to release them.
Priscilla Smith
Priscilla began exploring the photographic medium as an undergraduate pre-med major. Her interest in engaging both science and photography has led to work exploring fine art and as a medical and forensic photographer. Smith incorporated this experience in work on location for National Geographic Society and Odyssey Marine Exploration when she photographed artifacts discovered in a civil war era shipwreck.
As a photographer, her large-scale figurative photographs have been recognized by critic Donald Kuspit. Priscilla has exhibited nationally and internationally, with her photography included in the collections of The Philadelphia Art Museum, Woodmere Art Museum, Munson-Procter-Williams Art Institute and George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film. Smith was awarded a Lightwork Fellowship, and Delaware State Arts Council Emerging and Established Artist grants.
Priscilla Smith’s current figurative work combines contemporary and archaic materials incorporating digital printmaking technology with encaustic wax process, gold leaf, and pigment.
She currently lives and creates in the countryside of Pennsylvania, USA
