Marie Smith (she/they) is a neurodivergent visual artist and writer born, living, and working in London. Smith graduated in 2017 with an MA in History in Art with Photography at Birkbeck, University of London. Being a neurodivergent person with dyspraxia and anxiety has informed how they navigate the world. Marie’s practice incorporates audio, digital, and analogue media alongside text as a form of visual language that addresses identity, the body, nature, sustainability, mental health, and well-being. Marie’s lens-based approach incorporates low-toxic plant, food, or herb-based developers to process their analogue film. Due to this methodology not being transferable to developing colour film, Marie now only works with black and white and camera-less film processes. Marie has been exploring audio and workshops with collectives to deconstruct and reframe their position in institutional landscapes such as archives, museums, galleries, and nature. Marie is a Lecturer at Kingston University London and has previously lectured at Goldsmiths - University of London, and London College of Communication - UAL.
In 2022, Marie Smith worked as an artist-in-residence at the Horniman Museum and Gardens, home to Anna Atkins’ Study of British Algae, a groundbreaking work of cyanotype photography from 1848. While Atkins is celebrated as the first female photographer to publish a book of photographic illustrations, her family’s ties to Jamaica’s colonial history reveal a more complex legacy. Atkins’ husband, John Pelly Atkins, was the son of a plantation owner whose wealth—bolstered by compensation for enslaved individuals after abolition—helped fund her artistic practice.
As an artist of Jamaican heritage, Marie delves into this layered history in Extraction: In Conversation with Anna Atkins. This series of 30 bleached cyanotypes, inspired by Atkins’ methods, incorporates Marie’s reflections from the Horniman archives. The bleaching process becomes a means of transformation, offering commentary on Atkins’ legacy while reimagining the cyanotype tradition.
The works were first bound as a bespoke book acquired by the Horniman Museum. Now, Marie collaborates with Folium Publishing to release a limited-edition reimagining of Extraction, inviting audiences to engage with this dialogue on art, history, and agency through a reinterpretation of a 19th-century medium.
Social media handles
@folium_publishing & @marie_elaina_