Aaron Alexander Smyth

  ‘Hormony in Chromakey (RED)’, Single Channel Video.


Video Stills from ‘Harmony in Chromakey (RED)’




Harmony in Chromakey RED explores the themes of ‘performative identity’, ‘identity formation’ and the search for the self by conflating personal histories and memories with art historical and cultural references.


Today we perceive and navigate histories in ways more complex than ever, unearthing a global minded ethos while still struggling to define authentic experience. Visually the artwork aims to questions and push reality by presenting layered and abstracted figurative images. It probes ideas of authenticity and appearance by layering art historical computer generated imagery with video of physical bodies, in this way the work begins to highlight the tensions inherent in performative representation and explore the nebulous, cyclical and engulfing nature of fulfilment.

The work employs a heavy focus on colour, primarily red and blue and white, drawing on their rich symbology and antithetical meanings and interpretations to inform the work, acting as a visual metaphor for the transitional nature of the represented figure.

These carefully constructed images are intended to highlight to the audience the artwork’s focus on the complex internal struggle negotiating gender, power, representation and fulfilment that defines the contemporary human condition.




Digital Sculptures printed as Inkjet on Blueback for the occasion of how to grow ( black moon ). 42 x 59 cm.

This body of work was presented in how to grow ( black moon ) a group exhibition in The Complex, Dublin which saw artists investigate the overlap of instant and eternal gratification that defines the contemporary human condition, unearthing a global minded ethos struggling to define authentic experience. Through Video and 2D artworks they explore the nebulous, cyclical and engulfing nature of fulfilment.