Plato’s Camera

I made the series Plato’s Camera from 2005 whilst living in Paris. It is predicated on my belief that we feel as much as perceive what we are seeing, that we are aware of the edge, the blur between reality and imagination. In Plato’s cave it was only possible to see the outside world through projected shadows on the wall: the implication of the title is that the paintings are about what we construct psychologically as well as what is objectively seen. A parallel to my being a foreigner in Paris. The works are like the photos we might make if the camera had never been invented.

“Paint is paramount to Alan Smith, a reassuring, even refreshing attitude to find in an artist these days.

He is aware of the painting baton he carries in the fine art relay race and rather than videoing it, or projecting it, animating it, making a concrete cast of it or switching the lights on and off with it, he is prepared to use it in the way it was intended.”

Andrew Davies – Birmingham Post 10 March 2003