Welcome Back // Malcolm Smith

2019, installation with recycled materials and acrylic paint

At the museum in the city where I live (Yogyakarta, Indonesia) there are dioramas of local historical events. I love the way they use weirdly foreshortened perspectives, making the dioramas appear deeper than they really are. I tried to recreate that effect in this box installation, but it’s a bit wonky. It gives the scene an ‘uncanny’ quality; everything appears to be normal, but we know something is not quite right. There’s a monument in the town square; a big glittery hand that says ‘Welcome Back’. Dejavu is often associated with the uncanny – the sense that we’ve been here before but we have no idea how or when.

Malcolm Smith is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses printmaking, electronics, cross-cultural collaboration and queer theory. Originally from Australia, he has lived and worked in Yogyakarta, Indonesia for the past nine years, where he is one of the founding members of the screenprinting collective Krack!

www.invisibleman.net.au

www.krackstudio.com