Avant Gardeners: C&C at the Stables, Houghton Hall, Norfolk

Originally from Leamington Spa, raised in the hills of North Wales and currently residing in Norwich, Joni Smith received a degree in Fine Art Textiles from Loughborough University (2002) before completing a Masters degree in Textile Culture from Norwich University of the Arts (NUA) in 2007, attaining a Distinction. It is not hard to see that her background in textile-based disciplines informs Joni's use of paper materials.

Smith builds fictitious worlds using everyday objects. She works with maps and atlases, cutting into them, reordering them into new configurations. The corruption of such authoritative information as a map is a provocative act. It is taken still further by assembling the work using a new set of simple rules. Through her intensive cutting or weaving process, as each piece takes shape there is an equilibrium reached that occurs, as one world described with certainty, breaks down, and another parallel one following Joni's corrupting influence emerges.

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