Jill Smith: kupferschmidt / kupferschmid / kupferschmidte

kupferschmidt / kupferschmid / kupferschmidte is a sculpture and installation-based exhibition which uses materiality and autobiography to question the role and success of self-preservation amid a disruption to identity. The works in this exhibition use materials including those associated with Jewish culture to demonstrate the paradoxical nature of preservation. Delicate jewellery chains come together in messy knots as a connection to what came before. Pickles are crystallized in a moment of in-between as both their life and death are elongated. Falling, folding, and slumping glass jars appear to be in states of becoming and undoing. past / present / future. tethered / suspension / potential. In this exhibition notions of time and authenticity are disrupted by the tension between desire for preservation and inevitable failure. The works, surreal and absurd, aim to answer the question: is true preservation even possible?