Rowan Smith

‘With one small step from Mr. Neil Armstrong we reached a world that had seemed to reside outside of the reach of human experience. Yet, almost half a century later, the romantic longing for large-scale space travel, residence and communication with some yet unknown extraterrestrial force remains. This desire, a continual and unfocussed looking outwards, is linked both to the nostalgia born of our millennial uncertainty, and a looking forward to The Future, a vision simultaneously of apocalyptic dystopia and magical technological efficiencies and entertainments.

For, like the idea of outer space, the notion of The Future is in itself filled with nostalgic yearnings and anxieties. Why do we long for the future of the 1950s, buying toy tin robots with alarming zest? Why is it that when we think of the future, we still imagine a place of flying cars and household robots, fantasies we have been holding onto for over a century? How do we posit any individual identity when we know ourselves to be merely a speck of dust in the cosmos?
All of these are the questions that Smith posits in his work. Using the language of outdated retro-cool technology and handcrafted sculptures, Smith presents a series of works that subtly, sadly investigate a nostalgia for the future and an insatiable and unanswerable lust for something outside of our everyday experience.’



From The Ghosts of Future Past -
 The Work of Rowan Smith
By Linda Stupart

Click here to download Ralph Borland’s essay ‘Terra Nova’

Selected Exhibitions

  • Future Shock Lost (Solo Exhibition), Whatiftheworld / Gallery (2008)
  • 3C- Committee and Critics Choice, AVA Gallery (2007)
  • Choice Assortment group exhibition, Whatiftheworld / Gallery (2006)
  • Not Yet Famous: Nobody Likes Nothing group exhibition, Whatiftheworld / Gallery (2006)
  • Picnic, group show, Brendan Bell Roberts Gallery, curated by Andrew Lambrecht (2003)
  • Picnic, group show, as ‘Clive Murdock’ (collaborative pseudonym: Rowan Smith & Tony
    Walters) Brendan Bell Roberts Gallery, curated by Andrew Lambrecht (2003)
  • Police Camera Above, collaboration as ‘Paint Drip Risks’ Long Street & Loop Street (2003)
  • AVA Members Exhibition (2003)
    Michaelis Prize Winner 2007 - Upcoming solo exhibition August ‘08
  • AVA Members Exhibition (2002)
  • It feels so good inside, young artist group show, curated by Rowan Smith & Brian Kilbey (2001)
  • Obs Walk, art event, Observatory Lower Main Road (2001)
  • Soft Serve 2, art event, Cape Town Castle, curated by Zade Minty, Heath Nash and Collin Payne (2000)
  • Fresh Art, group show, Le Bon Ton Gallery (1999)
  • AVA Members Exhibition (1999)

Awards & Collections

  • Michaelis Prize, Top Graduate, Michaelis School of Fine Art (2007)
  • Hollard Collection, Johannesburg, South Africa (2208)