ELISABETH SMOLARZ

Born in Poland and raised in Germany before coming to the US over 20 years ago, I live between three different cultures affected by post-communist, socio-democratic, and neo-liberal systems. Consequently, I became involved in the idea of how consciousness and perception are formed by one’s surroundings.

I utilize the multidisciplinary forms of photography, video, and performance to demonstrate different kinds of loss that individuals experience as a result of larger social structures, particularly the alienating effects of capitalism. In order to expose the psychological and behavioral impact of these systems, I often ask strangers to become participants and collaborators in my projects.

The immediacy of my working method, wherein participants are invited to act freely and with little or no direction before the camera, fosters an improvisational approach that reveals hidden consequences of these structures and allows individual voices to be heard. The resulting works act as case studies that define an individual’s relationships to issues like self-hood, death, and labor within the confines of capitalism.